Sienna Montgomery, Not An Avenger
by Avenge-her
Summary: Sienna Montgomery was left orphaned in 2012. Three years later, she's independent, but the system won't let her be. Just when she thinks she's beat the odds, an annoying group of do-gooders bring her in. Trying to integrate her into their everyday lives, the Avengers must manage saving the world, and caring for a couple teens. Will contain spanking. Don't like, don't read.
1. Chapter 1

**I hadn't seen a story like this before for these characters so I decided to try and write one myself. If you know of some, however, let me know, and I'll check them out :) Will contain spanking so if you don't like that, don't read this.**

 **This is a story about a girl who gets taken in by the Avengers to keep her in check until she is a legal adult and can take care of herself. She fights it as much as she can, while also wanting to become one of them. It's a lose-lose situation, as they will not take no for an answer, but make sure she gets the life they didn't have.**

 **This story takes place just after** ** _Age of Ultron_** **, and is about a year away from** ** _Captain America: Civil War._** **I will try to stay as true to the MCU characters as I can, but remember that this is fanfiction and anything can happen whether I mean it to or not.**

Chapter 1

Steve Rogers was out at a coffee shop in disguise, enjoying the 21st century life. As much as he loved living with all the Avengers, sometimes he just needed some time to himself, and since everyone else was either away on a mission, with their families, in Asgard, who knows where, or had been given the afternoon off, he, too, could enjoy himself.

He was just finishing up and heading back to his motorcycle when someone crashed into him from behind.

Ever the soldier, he turned around and was ready for an attack, but what he saw was a girl about Wanda's age on the ground, pushing herself back up.

"Here, let me help you up." He said, extending his hand out to her.

Thankful, she took it, and was hoisted back up onto her feet. "Thanks." She said, looking towards his eyes, though she couldn't see them through his sunglasses. "Also, sorry. I didn't see you there. I'm in a rush, and was looking behind me when you stepped in front of me."

"It's all good, you didn't hurt me at all, just took me by surprise." Then he thought about what she said. "Wait, if you're in a hurry, shouldn't you be looking towards where you're going, not behind you?"

He didn't want to seem suspicious of her actions, although he was, as he wanted her to trust him. He would help if necessary.

"Yeah, but I was heading for the bus, and I was looking to see if it was coming. Which it is. I have to run. Sorry again." She said, and ran in the direction of the bus stop.

Steve thought that was an honest answer and watched her go, pleased to see she got onto the bus safely. It had already pulled away when three police officers came running from around the corner, barreling past him, similar to the young girl, except without hitting him first.

He thought that that was a little suspicious, especially when one of them said "she can't have gone far, she's only a kid!" but didn't pursue it any more. They were law enforcement officers, and could do their job without his help.

Sienna Montgomery was very glad she could get the nice stranger off her back before New York's finest could catch up with her. She had successfully kept under the radar for a good week and she didn't want to break that streak now. All she needed to do was make it a little over a year and then she would be free, and out of the foster care system.

Having been in it only about three years, she didn't know how people lasted their entire lives. She was at the age where no one would want to adopt her, and foster homes expected the worst of her, so she "lived" in a care facility. Legally, that was her place of residence, but she preferred the apartment she rented under the table.

It wasn't much - two rooms, one bedroom, and a living room/kitchen - and one bathroom, but it was all she needed, the care home be damned. Every now and then she would get picked up off the street, she didn't have the best rep and at this point almost every cop in town knew to look for her, and brought back to the home, where she would spend a week in solitary confinement (like she wasn't used to being alone in her apartment anyways) and then find a way to escape again.

Luckily for her, no one had been able to find her home, or else she would be screwed. Having been denied emancipation due to not having a job, though she did have money, this place was her safe zone until her 18th birthday. As soon as she turned 18, she would be free.

Until then, her small little apartment would have to do.

Unfortunately, they had spotted her halfway to her grocery store, and she couldn't get what she needed.

"Well Sienna, that's what you get. Looks like it's chinese food again tonight." She said aloud, looking into her fridge for last week's leftovers. When she had a coupon, like she did the previous week, she ordered the meal for two, which was really a meal for four, from the place across the street and kept it in her fridge so she could have meals at least half a week, or longer if she could actually get out to a grocery store.

It had taken over an hour to get back on the bus as people were starting to recognize her and she knew if she wanted to keep her place secret she'd have to grocery shop far away from her home so if she was caught, they wouldn't find it, and she was starving.

Having heated up the second last portion of leftovers, she sat down on her chair and picked up her favourite book, _Love in the Time of Cholera_ , and read the night away. There's not much else to do when you're stuck at home, is there?

She still had her old iPhone, the last gift her parents got her before they were tragically killed in the battle of New York in 2012, but she couldn't turn it on for fear of someone being able to track it. She could go out driving, but that would require a full tank of gas and a place to go that wasn't the stop and go traffic of New York City.

So, reading it was. And that was just fine by her.

 **Thanks for reading! I will continue to write more, I'm just really tired and have to be up in five hours. A new update may come as soon as possible. Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Please note that when they are in gear, I try to use their aliases, unless they're talking to each other. If it doesn't flow/doesn't make sense, let me know, and I'll try and switch it. I have spent far too long on that one part trying to figure it out I just gave up.**

 **With that being said, enjoy!**

Chapter 2

It had been a week since the incident with the police, and Sienna was letting her guard down a bit. Not enough to get caught, but she was no longer checking over her shoulder so often she looked suspicious.

Luckily, she had caught a break and was able to go for a walk in the park, as it was raining slightly and everyone had an umbrella to hide behind.

Rainy days were her favourite days as she was able to be almost completely free of worry over being spotted by a cop. She had a medium sized black umbrella along with an old black raincoat and black boots, same as almost everyone else, and was able to fit in near perfectly. Not once had she been spotted on a rainy day.

Well, there's a first time for everything, and fortunately for Sienna, that day wasn't it.

SM

Walking through the park Sienna watched the dogs chasing the ducks, and the owners just waiting for the walk to be over. She saw the hardcore runners pushing their kids in plastic covered strollers, and other families playing with their kids in the rain. It made her miss her parents.

Unfortunately, since she ran away so often, she couldn't go to the cemetery to visit them, as the police learned early on that that was the first place anyone should check for her.

The last time she had been there was a year ago, and she had been picked up and dragged kicking and screaming to jail. It was supposed to be to the home, but the kicking and the profanities yelled at the officers landed her there, and she had been put on a week's probation after a night spent in prison, being promised that if she ever fought like that against police again that she would be in there longer.

She couldn't blame them for that, though, as kicking a police officer hadn't been her proudest moment and every time after that that she was caught or backed into a corner, she didn't protest and was brought back to the home. Last time she had been picked up, though, she was promised jail time no matter what, as running away is illegal and they were tired of chasing her, and so she couldn't risk putting herself in any kind of situation where she may get caught.

"After I turn 18." She thought, "I'll go at least every week to visit their grave site." And with this promise in her head she shook off her sadness and kept walking.

Sienna loved the buildings of New York City, and enjoyed walking along the streets thinking up the different jobs she would have if she worked in each one.

In the tall one, she could be a CEO of a waste management company, looking towards building a greener earth. In the one with rounded edges, she would be an editor, choosing books for people all around the world. She smiled at all the possibilities and vowed that when she was no longer on the run that she would finish high school online and work for one of these companies.

Realizing she was hungry and nowhere near home, Sienna found an Internet cafe, ordered a sandwich, and sat down at a computer.

Taking her hood off always made her feel exposed, but she felt even more vulnerable being the only one in the room with a hood on. So she pulled it down and decided to eat her meal quickly and get out of there.

Opening up the web browser of the computer in front of her, Sienna searched for the news. Staying on top of what was going on at least in New York City was a good way to stay out of view of a policeman.

She was in luck! The direct path she could take home was clear of any major mishaps, and Tony Stark, who had been visiting a nearby tower to see how it was holding up thanks to his relief fund, had left a the building about an hour prior so the streets were once again devoid of too many eyes.

It's the luck of the rain.

Once finished with her sandwich, Sienna gathered her stuff, pulled her hood back up over her head, and headed towards home.

As she was thinking about all she needed to do there, such as changing the oil in her car and cleaning the bathroom, she didn't notice she was walking towards a bank with it's lights flashing inside. She was just walking past it when she heard sirens, and someone running out of the building with a bag in his hands.

Realizing quickly that she was witnessing a bank robbery, and she would need to act or he would get away, she threw her umbrella at the back of the guy's head, which sent him falling to the ground, the bag spilling out in front of him. Smiling quickly to herself before running up beside him, grabbing her umbrella, and running away, she didn't notice the other thieves coming out of the building, or the four people on top of it, who had seen everything she'd done.

Sienna knew that she was going to have to run quickly and as far away as possible. The cops would have seen her, as they were just pulling up when she threw it, and she couldn't get caught. Not on a rainy day. She also knew she couldn't run for home, as there would be a chance she would get caught and her cover there blown.

She took note after running down her third back alley, though never stopping, that no one was following her. Or so she thought. In reality, there was a small flying drone watching her every move, staying just high enough that she wouldn't see it.

SM

Captain America, Falcon, Scarlet Witch and Black Widow were alerted to the bank robbery happening ten minutes away, and were there in nine. Standing on top of the bank, they saw one guy run out of it.

"I've got this." Said Scarlet Witch, and she was about to stop him with her telekinesis when an object- what looked like an umbrella- flew at his head, knocking him unconscious.

"Damn. That girl's got aim." Falcon said as they watched the girl who had thrown the umbrella grab it and run away.

"Send Redwing down to watch her." Cap said, "we don't have the man power right now to follow her but she just took down a thief without a real weapon and then ran away from a crime scene. I have some questions for her."

Falcon did as he was commanded and then followed the others down off the building to catch the rest of the thieves.

It was a simple task, really, but it was meant for their youngest member, Scarlet Witch, to be able to practice what they had all been practicing in a real life that wouldn't be too dangerous. Well, not as dangerous as Hydra. Sure, there were still guns in this situation, but these people had less training than an ex SHIELD agent would have. She thought it was insane, this real life practice, and that she knew what she was doing, but Cap had quickly persuaded her to see his side, luckily with only a couple threats, and nothing more.

As it turns out, Cap was right, and she did need to work on fighting with a team, but standing her own ground. Ultron really hadn't proven anything other than which side she was on, and in the bank robbery she often had to be backed up by Cap when she wasn't paying attention to what, or who, was behind her. This worried Cap, as it proved that she trusted them too much, that she thought they would always be behind her, even though that wasn't a certainty.

In total, Widow took out five of the fifteen men on her own, Falcon three, Cap four and Scarlett Witch two, and in almost no time at all, the bank had been cleared and all the thieves escorted into the backs of police vehicles.

Steve, wanting to make sure all the hostages were okay, sent Falcon after their mystery helper. "Sam, see where Redwing is, and go after that girl. Nat, you clear the west wing, Wanda, you and I will clear the east wing." Seeing the argument brewing on her face before she said anything, he quickly added, "we need to work better as a team. You did great today, but we're still figuring it out, and we should practice some more on people who we're here to help, not hurt."

Seemingly pacified, Wanda said nothing, and they all went their separate ways.

Falcon quickly caught on to the homing beacon on Redwing, and ran towards the signal.

SM

Sienna could still hear the commotion from the bank, but it got quieter and quieter as she moved farther away. She still didn't want to risk anyone following her so she decided to walk 40 minutes to the left of where she was going, wait a bit to see if she had been followed, and then head back home.

Fifteen minutes later, she felt someone following her. She turned down an alleyway, looking for anything she could hide behind or grab to defend herself, but saw nothing. All she had was her umbrella.

She began running but was only halfway down the alley when she heard someone seemingly drop down behind her.

"Stop right there." The male voice said, and she did. Turning around with her hands up, her mind was racing trying to figure out how to get out of the mess she had gotten into. She saw a little drone fly to him and land on his suit while the wings on the back, no doubt the reasons he was able to stealthily follow her and land right behind her.

"You ran away from a crime scene." The strangely dressed guy said. "That's illegal. I could, and should take you back right now."

"I didn't see anything! I would be a terrible witness!" Sienna exclaimed, knowing if he took her back, she wouldn't be seen as a witness but a quasi fugitive, something she wouldn't have. As much as she saw the reason behind it, she wasn't going back to jail.

"You took down an armed bank robber with your umbrella. You saw enough. If anything, my boss wants to talk to you about your skills." He said back, crossing his arms.

Getting briefly thrown off topic, Sienna noticed how toned this guy was. She quickly realized that he was going to be a hard one to escape from. Oh well. Rainy days were lucky until now.

"All I did was stop a guy. I helped catch him. I shouldn't be taken in for that. I shouldn't be questioned."

"There were more of them, maybe you were helping those guys."

"I have nothing on me! I was just walking by and saw it happening and decided to act!" Sienna said, flipping out all her pockets and showing him that she was telling the truth. It was written on his face that he did.

"Hold on." He said, and she did, gladly. She would take any amount of time she could to figure out how to get out of there. "Cap, you want to question this girl, yes? ... Okay, well she says she shouldn't be taken in, she caught the thief, she didn't help him. ... Yes, I know. Okay, I'll be back soon."

"Sorry, kid, I'm going to have to take you back to my boss. If you have nothing to hide, it shouldn't be a problem. Just come back with me, and we'll get it all sorted out."

Luckily, while he was speaking with his boss, Sienna had thought of a quick escape. She might not be able to overpower him physically, especially because of those muscles, but she was stealthy and lean where he was larger and toned, and if she could just get back far enough down the alleyway, she could slip through the fence on the other side and sprint away. Daringly, as he kindly held out his hand to her, she swung her umbrella and popped it open at the same time. It threw off the little drone thing she assumed had been following her, and damaged a wing on the guy's suit. Well that was easier than initially expected.

With surprise on her side, she quickly turned around and ran towards the end of the alleyway.

"Wha-? Hey! Come back here." She heard the guy say, running after her after the initial shock wore off. She could hear one of the wings coming out, and he obviously tried to fly, but when she looked back briefly, she saw him fly sideways towards the ground.

Smiling, she reached the gate she was looking for, squeezed through the gap, and ran as fast as she could as far away as she could, until she reached a big crowd where she slowed down to blend in.

Sienna looked up at the cloudy sky and silently thanked it, very grateful it had stayed true to it's usual luck.

She also prayed that the next day would be less eventful.

It was then she realized something; that guy was talking to a guy named Cap and he was decked out in all new, expensive looking, tech. That must have been an Avenger! She just bested an Avenger!


	3. Chapter 3

**The following chapter has a detailed description of a minor crime in it. I first heard of it when reading the newspaper about a year ago, and decided to add it in here since I don't actually know the minor details of other crimes, and this story needed the little push. Please DO NOT use these tips to commit a crime. (Better yet, don't commit a crime). You may, however, use it in a story such as this one.**

 **Also- there is a bit of math in this chapter. I am not a mathematician, so if it doesn't make sense, I'm sorry. And if I bring it up later and I see that my math was slightly off, I'll try and change it. No promises, though, I can barely figure out how to upload a story without it being only in code the first time.**

Chapter 3

After that, not much could get Sienna down. She was elated! She had just beat who she suspected was an Avenger, and she did it with just an umbrella!

She was feeling on top of the world, and was barely paying attention to her surroundings, when she saw the police chief on the street, in between her and where she wanted to go. Luckily she had caught it just in time, and hadn't walked into him. It was still raining, but she had lost her umbrella to Avenger guy and couldn't hide her face. She would just have to look down, keep her hood up, and walk past him. He hadn't seen her yet and if she did that, he may not. She couldn't turn back, or walk suddenly in a different direction, it would seem suspicious.

She was right beside him when he spoke up, but he wasn't talking to her. "You mean to tell me that there was a robbery going on, you don't let me know, a couple of the Avengers show up, and Sienna Montgomery was there? Someone is getting fired. I don't know who, yet, but it's happening." He said into his radio.

So it was an Avenger. That confirmation should have made her happier than she was, but he also mentioned that she had been spotted.

Thinking about it, it made sense to her. Some random girl saves part of the day and doesn't stick around is suspicious. And besides, everyone had been briefed on what she looked like, even a description of her physique could have led to the conclusion, or the suspicion, that it was her.

Luckily, the chief of police was too busy trying to get everything sorted with the burglaries that he didn't notice her as she passed by, and she was able to get past him without being noticed. As soon as she was past him, she began walking as fast as she could, her legs propelling her forward until she was back at her apartment.

Finally back at home, she decided to have a bath to warm up from the rain, and treat herself after an all too long day outside.

SM

"So to clarify, you're grounded because a young girl threw her umbrella at you?" Widow said, trying not to laugh in front of all the cops that were standing around.

"She just got in a lucky swing. The wing shouldn't have just popped out like that." Falcon replied, irritated with his gear. It was used in wars, and an umbrella took it down? Unacceptable.

"Officer Ross," Cap called, motioning over the officer all of them had given their statements to. "Can you get a sketch artist to sketch my partner's description of the girl so we can try and find her?"

"No need." Said Officer Ross. "Some of my guys saw her retreating form. Long brown hair slightly wavy, green eyes, freckled nose, about 5'9", looks toned but slightly malnourished?" Falcon nodded. Officer Ross pulled out his phone and pulled up a picture. "Look like this?"

"Yeah, that's her."

"She's been on the run for a few years now, we go back and forth with her. She runs away, we catch her, usually return her to the care home, brought her in once for assaulting an officer- that's the mugshot you see there- and then she runs away again. It's been two weeks since she ran away last. My colleagues almost caught up with her a week ago, but she managed to get away. Sneaky little minx, she is."

Cap looked at the phone, and realization hit him. He turned to walk away, "we better go, but we'll be on the lookout for her as well. I want to see her returned and safe in the home again."

"Oh, no Captain. She won't be brought back to the home. She's run away too often, and she's gotten her warning. Next time we catch her, we're bringing her in to a juvenile facility. No one wants to keep a flight risk, and she hasn't managed being able to stay in one place for too long."

Cap turned back around towards the man. "So you're bringing her to prison?"

"Running away is illegal, Captain. We have given her far more chances than she deserves. She's a danger to herself, and evidently others," he said, gesturing to the ambulance taking away the man she had knocked unconscious, "and she will be incarcerated until she's 18, or until someone comes to claim her. Our police force needs to focus on real problems, not a nearly 17 year old one."

Cap didn't agree with what he was saying, but didn't know what he could do to help. He didn't want to see this girl incarcerated, but he also couldn't let a minor, possibly dangerous- she did take down one of the world's heroes, after all- live her life on the streets.

The small group were walking towards the van they had brought and left a couple streets over, when Sam spoke up. "Listen Cap, I don't know what happened today. I shouldn't have let her go. Obviously she's a danger if she needs to be incarcerated, and now, because of me, some other poor bastard is going to get it by common objects."

"I don't think she's dangerous," said Wanda, "I just think she's scared. If she's in a home, she doesn't have a family, and you don't learn moves or instinct like that leading a safe lifestyle. I think she's in more danger than she poses."

"Wanda's right, Sam. And you weren't the only one who let her go. I just realized when I was shown her picture. About a week ago a girl ran into me and fell over. She kept looking over her shoulder but she told me it was because she was looking for the bus that was coming. As she was able to get onto one quite quickly following that, I didn't think anything of it. But then as soon as she got on the bus, a couple policemen ran around the corner- I'm beginning to gather that they were after her- but she was long gone. I didn't see any trace of danger in her eyes when I helped her up, only a little bit of fear and a lot of determination."

"So what are you suggesting, Rogers?" Nat asked, driving away towards the Avengers property.

"I don't know. All I know is if we ever see her again, and we should show her picture to the others, I will personally escort her down to the police station. She may not be a danger, but she has been evading the law for quite some time and she has to pay the price."

"You can't do that Steve!" Wanda exclaimed. "They're just going to lock her up. That isn't right, all she probably wants is freedom!"

"Wanda, that's enough. We'll see what happens when she's caught, but until then, we can't do anything else about it. Now, when we get back, I want everyone to rest, and Sam's suit sent down to the labs to get fixed. After dinner we'll go over some new moves, and what went right and wrong on this mission." Steve's orders were firm, no one was disputing them, as much as they might want to. Nat didn't need to rest and Sam was agitated after the encounter with the Sienna girl, but they both knew those orders were mainly in place to ensure Wanda rested her powers, and they didn't argue because that could land them all in hot water with their Captain.

Satisfied that no one was going to dispute him, Steve looked out the window of the passenger seat and tried to think of what he would do when and if they found the girl. At that moment, he really had no clue.

SM

That night, Sienna made herself some pasta, knowing she could eat it for the next few days as a left over, and not have to worry about cooking. Probably around the time she finished it, though, she would need to go back out to the grocery store.

Perishables are just too fragile. If she could make do without them, she would. But unfortunately, she's stuck in her ways of needing them, and so she would need to suffer through the grocery shop.

It wasn't always bad, and it got her out of the house, but she lived in fear of getting caught, and she either had to sacrifice being out longer to buy more stuff or going out more frequently to get things.

She usually opted for the latter as she liked mingling with people, even if it was just waving at the kid on the cart that passed by her. But, it was always a risk, because the person pushing the cart may be an off-duty cop who recognized her and then she would be screwed.

After finishing dinner, she turned on her radio to the tv channel, which she had only learned about recently, and listened to shows like Family Feud, the Young and the Restless, Jeopardy, and whatever news was on.

It was weird only hearing the voices of the people she'd seen numerous times before, but she would make do with what she had, and that was television shows on the radio.

She realized when listening to the news' weekly box office report that she hadn't been to the cinemas in a while, and decided that she would run her money scam, which was used solely for indulgences such as this.

Her parents were skeptical of banks, and while they trusted them to a certain degree, most of their savings had been saved in their home in various safes throughout the house. About $25,000 had been saved, which doesn't seem like much when you think about how this was their entire life savings and almost all their pay checks, but they had just recently purchased their (quite large) house and furnished it, and of course had to pay bills every month, but it was enough for her.

So, when they were killed, but before social services worked out that there was a 12 year old living by herself in the home, she opened all the safes, took the money out, managed to open a bank account under a different name, as she knew social services were coming for her, and needed an escape plan, and put all her money into it. It was a lot for one kid, and she still had just under enough to last until she turned 18 and inherited the money from their estate, which would set her up long enough to finish school and look for her own job.

She had a year and two months to go, and $6,400 left for rent which would use $5,600, leaving $800 for groceries and other necessities. This, she knew, wouldn't sustain her, and she would need to start running money scams regardless of if she wanted to indulge herself or not, but she wasn't thinking about that right now. She could sustain herself for at least 6 months on that money, so until month 5, she wouldn't be worried about the scams.

The scam itself was quite easy, but very risky for being seen. She would be in plain view of many people. She would have to wear her hair back, put on a little makeup to change her face, wear her looser clothing to hide her figure and not look suspicious. To get the money, she was going to need to stand outside a supermarket, in this case she was thinking of Target, and grabbing any receipts thrown in the trash, as many people did quite often after leaving the store with only a couple items.

So, she got dressed and proceeded to a nearby Target. Not the closest one to her, but one a thirty minute walk away. Luckily, the sun had already gone most of the way down and she was shielded when outside, looking through the garbage. It was kind of disgusting, but no one questioned her because she kept repeating, "I can't believe I dropped my keys in here!"

In total, she had grabbed about 18 receipts, and decided that that should be enough to indulge herself with only one movie.

She took them home and began to look through them, tossing aside any receipts shown that were paid by credit card or debit. For her scam to work, she needed cash only receipts. There were about 6 of them in total.

Three were too small, as they were quick purchases of under $10, one was too big, being a large television (people paid in cash for that?), but two were just the right price. Two pieces of makeup for a $19.18 total, or two baby sweaters for $36.13.

She decided to take both the next day, and see what would be the easiest thing to duplicate.

SM

In the Target, all dressed up to fool people who may recognize her, she walked to the baby section first. She figured she would try for the most profitable return possible.

She quickly found the two sweaters, which were each $15.99, and decided not to even try with the makeup.

She walked around the store a bit more after that, then walked into the bathrooms, hiding the clothes the entire time. There, she pulled them out, and put them into an old plastic bag from target, ripped the prices off the tags as she was going to pretend it had been a gift, and stuffed the receipt in there as well. Then, she walked out of the bathroom and up to the customer service counter.

"Hi, how may I help you today?" The lady, Anita, asked when she approached the counter.

"Hi, I wanted to return these two sweaters. They were supposed to be for my friend's kid, but she hadn't told me she was giving her up for adoption," hey, may as well use the system, right? And besides, she looked too young for a baby, a 'friend' of hers would probably be too.

"I'm sorry to hear that but glad she recognized that within herself." Anita said, sincerely, and she almost felt bad for lying to her. Almost. "I can definitely return these, and give you a refund. Just hold on a second."

As she was running the sweaters through the register, Sienna's heart started to flutter quickly. She knew that if she was going to get caught for lying, it would be here. What if there was a sensor inside that wouldn't have been deactivated because it hadn't been purchased at all?

"Okay, I have a a twenty, a ten, a five and a one dollar bill for you. And then, 10, 11, 12, 13 cents, for a total return of $36.13. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Sienna instantly felt relieved. "Nope, that was it. Thank you. Have a great day."

"You too, bye now." She knew she would have a great day. She could go to a movie tonight!

Stuffing her money in her pocket, she ran to a nearby Internet cafe and looked up showtimes for a movie cinema across the city.

Seeing that Pitch Perfect 2 was playing at 9 p.m. at her preferred cinema, she knew that that was the one she wanted to see. She loved musicals, and she had loved the original movie.

Luckily, the movie was only $10.50, so she would have an extra $25.63 to spend elsewhere- probably on groceries- later this week.

SM

"Hey Steve you know that girl you wanted us to watch out for? The one you and birdman let go?" Tony asked, approaching the captain as he sat on a couch, reading the newspaper and drinking coffee.

Steve rolled his eyes, sighed, and looked up at Tony in exasperation. "Yes?"

"Well Veronica just pinged someone who looks a lot like her at a movie cinema. She was also at a Target earlier today, from the looks of it running some sort of scam for money."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier today?"

"She's not priority number one, Steve, I just went to check if she had been seen, and she has."

"Wait, you have her on an alert?"

"Well, I don't have any authorization for this, but I have access to store security cameras."

"Thank you for finding her. We should go pick her up." Steve said, putting his things aside and heading to get ready. "Oh and Tony?"

"Yes, Captain?" Tony replied, already knowing what was coming next.

"No more looking through security footage until you get specialized clearance to do so or unless it's of grander proportions than just a teenage girl who's run away."

"Aye, aye, Captain." Tony replied in a mock salute.

Steve went to find Wanda and Nat. Nat was sparring in the training room, and Wanda was pressing buttons on her remote which was floating across the room, changing the channels on her tv.

"Wanda, you, Nat and I are going to go just the three of us to pick up that girl from yesterday. I figure you and Nat could show her some kind of female solidarity, and I'm going to personally make sure she gets brought in to the police."

"You don't trust us to do that, too?"

"It's not that. I let her go once, and she's been on her own for a week since. I need to make sure she's safe."

"She would be safe here." Wanda said, surprising him. "There are many dangers we face, but she would have a nice stable home, and we could protect her from things she can't protect herself from with an umbrella. And I will not go just to bring her to jail. She isn't unlike me, and she doesn't deserve to be locked up."

"We can't bring her here." Steve said, trying to be reasonable while also figuring out the logistics of if it would work in his head. "The police have made their decision. I will respect it. She has broken the law too many times. Even today, Tony said. She needs to learn from her mistakes."

"We can teach her here!" Wanda exclaimed, getting up off her bed to be as close to his level as she could be. "Whatever she's done, if she hasn't hurt people, then she doesn't deserve to be in jail!"

Steve agreed with her, but he also knew it wasn't his call to make. He was also displeased with her tone of voice, but decided not to act on it because she seemed to have a bad personal connection to this girl. "Wanda, it's not my decision to make. I can try and persuade them to send her back to a home, but I will be bringing her into a station, and she will be processed there. She can't come back with us, our lives aren't stable enough. Don't give me that look or else you aren't coming."

Wanda knew very well that her looking at him menacingly wouldn't be enough to persuade him to see her side, but she tried, anyway. Obviously having failed that route, she decided to go for another; begging. "Please, Steve. Can't we just bring in one more person my age, or close to it? And why not her? She doesn't have to be an Avenger, she just needs some friends and a place she doesn't feel she needs to run away from."

Steve could see her point, again, and realized that they could probably swing it, they certainly had the space. But he knew he couldn't do it illegally, which meant the Sienna girl still had to be processed at a station.

"I will see what I can do. But she's still going to be processed first. I have to bring her in."

"No! You can't! Just bring her here, and tell them you have it under control. You're Captain America! They have to listen to you."

"No, _they_ don't. _You_ , on the other hand, do, young lady. Now I've changed my mind. Only Nat and I are going. You're going to stay here since I can't trust you with this." He saw her face fall. "I know you just want what's best for her, and you have your reasons as to why she can't be processed, but I will stay with her as long as I can, and I will bring her back here if I can. But if I can't, you aren't going to do anything to change the policemen's mind. If you do, you and I are going to have some problems. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal." She said, defeated. At least she knew she tried, and the girl she already thought of as her friend might possibly be coming to live with them. She guessed that was all she could hope for, without having 'problems' with Steve.

Just then, Nat walked in in plain clothes. "You guys almost ready?" She asked, looking at the forlorn teen and her slightly agitated captain.

"It's just you and me now, Nat, and I'm ready. Let's go." As they were leaving, Steve saw Vision in the kitchen. "Please keep Wanda company while we are out. She seems really worried about this girl and will probably talk to you about it if you ask her."

"Of course." He said, and proceeded to walk towards her room.

SM

On the way to the cinema, Nat noticed that Steve was being uncharacteristically quiet. "Want to tell me what's on your mind, Rogers?"

Steve was surprised to hear her voice, but quickly recovered. "Yeah, um, how would you feel about bringing in another teenager?"

"What? This girl? Where'd you get that idea?"

"Wanda mentioned it. She really wants this girl to come back with us. That's why I couldn't bring her. She would have probably helped her escape before letting her go to jail for any amount of time. And Officer Ross said yesterday that if no one wanted her in their home, she would be in juvenile prison until 18. I do agree she needs to learn her lesson, but not for that long."

"So the solution is for us to take her in?" Nat asked, skeptical of the idea. She loved kids, but their place was a place for superheroes, and the regular kid might get hurt.

Steve sighed. "I don't know. That's what's been bugging me. Might just have to see how this one plays out."

Nat smirked, trying to lighten the mood. "Maybe seeing you with a teenager will get you more dates, Rogers. People will think you're taking care of a younger sister, and love you all the more for it."

Steve laughed, "if we do take in another teenager I don't think I'd have time to date. Between saving people, training others, and possibly raising two, I know my free time will be severely lacking."

By this point, Steve and Nat had pulled up in front of the cinema. "If this does happen, it won't just be you raising the two of them. It will be all of us. You'll have plenty of time to date."

"Well that's not the important thing right now. Getting this girl is." Steve said, as he decided whether or not they should enter the cinema. "She'll probably want to cause a scene if we're in there, but it's the best way to ensure she actually comes with us."

"Lead the way, commander."

"That's Captain, to you."

Once inside the cinema, Steve asked for the manager and then to see the security footage to determine which movie she was seeing so they could wait for her outside of it. It would cause too much of a commotion to go in, and they weren't in any rush.

"There she is!" Nat said, pointing at the screen. They watched the old footage of her walking in to the 3rd cinema, which was playing Pitch Perfect 2.

"That movie is almost over, due out in about 15 minutes." The manager said. She was more than willing to help the Avengers. "You can make yourself comfortable in our lobby until it's over, if you want."

"Thank you," Steve said, and turned to Nat. "I saw a couple pinball games in the lobby. I bet I can get a higher score than you can."

"You're on."

SM

Sienna really enjoyed the movie. Sure, it wasn't perfection, but any movie that has singing in it is sure to please her. Knowing she didn't have anything to get back for, she decided to stay and watch the credits, looking for cool jobs of the people who worked on it.

Sienna thought about being a screenwriter, or a caterer, or an assistant's assistant's hairdresser. That could be a fun job.

By the time the credits were finished rolling, she was the only one left in her cinema, save for the workers cleaning up. She quickly thanked them then left the room.

Walking into the lobby, she was surprised and terrified to have Captain America and the Black Widow in regular attire walking up to her.

She began plotting and escape, ready to run. "Sienna Montgomery?" Captain America asked.

Well, that's a bad sign. He already knows her name. The only reason he would know her name is because of the bank robbery a couple days ago.

"Yes?" She asked, stopping where she was. She saw them do the same. It was only a 10 foot gap, but it was enough to give her a sense of security.

"Don't panic." The Black Widow said. "We are here to take you in." Yeah well she panicked anyways. That was enough to solidify her need to get out. "We don't want to hurt you, and we know you're capable of hurting us, too. We just want to talk to you. We can persuade them to go easy on you if you cooperate with us now."

"I go with you, I go to prison. Simple as that."

"Yes, and that's because you have been breaking the law. But that doesn't mean you'll be in there forever. And the better our report, the better it will be for you." Captain America said.

"Jail is jail." She said, throwing all the anger she could into those three words. "I would be fine on my own if they didn't keep following me. I may not be 18 yet, but I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

"Unfortunately the law requires all those who aren't emancipated under the age of 18 to be in a care home." Black Widow said. "If it were up to us, well, up to me at least, you would be allowed to be on your own with checks every once in a while. But it isn't up to me. It's up to the state. And they've decided this. Now you can come with us, or cause a commotion. A commotion may get people to come to your rescue, but they'll call the police. You'll be in handcuffs in the back of a car by the end of the night. With us, we will take you personally. We'll talk with them, get them to be lenient with you."

It was a fine choice, but Sienna had another option, and it was just leaving the cinema in throngs now. "Look! It's Captain America and Black Widow! The Avengers!" People started running to them right away, trying to get autographs and pictures. They tried to push them away, but they didn't want to hurt them, and couldn't get them to move fast enough. Sienna was already gone, running the opposite way towards the back exit.

Knowing they could undoubtedly run faster than she could, and may have brought other people who could fly over her, she decided to hide in the first place she found. Luckily, the first place she saw that would work was an all hours superstore, and she walked in as calmly as she could, going straight for the clothes racks and hiding in the middle of the circular ones. When she was young, she hid in one of those for hours. Originally it had just been to play hide and seek, but she ended up falling asleep in there, and the store was shut down as they looked for her. Her adrenaline pumping would prohibit that from happening again this time, and she would stay there as long as possible.

SM

Steve and Nat had just gotten away from everyone when Nat's phone rang. "Hello?" She proceeded to hand it to Steve. "It's for you."

"Yes?" Steve asked, holding the phone to his ear.

Tony's voice came through, and Steve could hear the laughter in his tone. "How could a super solider and a highly trained assassin let someone go like that?" Tony questioned, and Steve could hear Sam laughing in the background. Great.

"She's good at thinking on her feet. We thought we had it under control. Wait... How'd you know about that? I told you to stop watching the cameras until you received special permission."

Tony was still laughing. "Oh, but you're going to be glad I did. She's in the superstore nearby. The rack of blue and green dresses." With that, he hung up.

Steve turned to Nat, getting more and more upset by the second. "Come on, Tony found her." He handed her back her phone and they ran out the back door of the cinema.

As soon as they walked into the superstore, they grabbed a hats off the rack to their right, putting them on just to hide their faces once more. It was quite bright in the superstore and they didn't want a repeat of last time, letting the girl go, again.

Steve said nothing as he walked up to the circular rack with blue and green dresses on it, reached through, and pulled Sienna out. "No more of these games. You're coming with us." With that, Nat moved his arm so it looked like they were all walking with her in the middle being comforted, but in reality she was being escorted.

Sienna knew she had been bested. She knew that their grasps on her arm, which were tighter than anyone has ever gripped her before though they would not bruise her, would stay put until she got to whatever vehicle they were using to go down to the station. If she screamed again, those hands would not loosen. She was going to jail.

 **Thank you for your reviews and favourites! Please continue :) If you enjoy this story, please recommend it to your friends! Also, if you have a recommendation of a story to read, let me know! I'd love to read more good fics :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**If you get emails about this story being updated... It hasn't changed. I was just stupid and I forgot my character's name and I had to go change all the "Sierra"s to "Sienna"s. Whoops.**

Chapter 4:

Sienna was put into the seat behind the driver's seat, with the Captain America guy coming in to sit beside her.

"Seatbelt." He said, putting his on.

She was going to protest, but had a feeling he would just put it on her himself, and she wanted at least a little control of her life, so she did.

She tried to look out the window and cry silently, but her heavy breathing gave her away.

"Hey," Captain America- she really should have paid attention when he was found so she could know his name now, because calling him Captain America all the time is weird- said. "Look, I know it's not ideal, but this is for the best. The police told me you've resisted them before, and you keep running away. They just can't let that happen. They have a moral responsibility to make sure you're okay and they can't do that if you're lost to them all the time." He put his hand on her shoulder, and tried to get her to turn around.

She didn't want to, though, and so she tried to shrug him off. It didn't work and he made her turn around.

"You can talk to us." He said, looking sincere.

"I know it's hard right now, kid, but trust me, it won't always be that way." Nat said from the front seat, trying to encourage her.

"Says you. You aren't going to jail because you've rebelled against not being wanted."

Steve and Nat's hearts ached at that.

Sienna continued. "My parents wanted me, but they were killed in an unfortunate accident outside everyone's control. I've been passed around since I was 12. People here don't want me. They want the money the government gives them for me. So when I don't agree with that, and get away, they decide to throw me in jail. I'll admit sometimes I do do things the wrong way, but you'd act violently too if you were being brought back to group homes all the time. The police may think it's what's best for people, and sure it won't always be that way, but you can't just go from being loved by friends and family to losing one and drifting away from the other without serious side effects. Trust is an issue. Abandonment is an issue. You can't think about getting married and having kids because what if that happens to you and they're left alone? What if the person doesn't really love you? Being on my own is the easiest way to deal with all that. People can't leave you or not love you if you don't have anyone around."

With that, she turned back to the window and continued to cry.

Nat looked at Steve through the rearview mirror. What could they say to that to make it better? Suddenly, they both had the same idea, and knew they had to go through with it. They just couldn't tell her yet, as they had to discuss the matter with the others.

"Hey kid, trust me on this. You won't be in jail for long. We're going to get you out. We'll vouch for you as much as we can, and we have some friends who owe us a few favours." Nat said.

Sienna wanted to feel comforted by that statement, but adults had broken her trust one too many times in the past, and she just couldn't bring herself to believe them.

SM

Once at the station, Nat and Steve got out, while Sienna sat, not moving.

"Come on, Sienna. This isn't a life sentence. And people spend at least couple nights in jail all the time for theft, which is basically what you did the other day. It won't be maximum security with murderers. It'll be three square meals a day with other kids similar to you. You can do it." Steve encouraged, holding out his hand.

Sienna tentatively unbuckled her seatbelt, and grabbed his hand, letting him lead her out of the vehicle. Once out, they began walking into the station. This time they walked, though, they weren't gripping her. She was walking side by side with Captain America, with his arm just behind her to make sure she continued forward.

As they approached the counter, Black Widow surprised her and grabbed her hand, giving it a gentle and affirming squeeze before letting go.

She wondered why they were suddenly being so kind. It wasn't as if any of what she said in the van was anything out of the ordinary. She had repeated that to the cops all the time and never swayed them.

"Good evening, officer," the Captain said, as he came up closer. "I'm Steve Rogers, this is my friend, Natasha Romanoff and we have brought in a cooperative Sienna Montgomery."

"Cooperative? That's a first." The guy said, knowing exactly who she was as soon as she came in.

"We're very persuasive." Natasha said, smirking at him.

"She's here now," Steve said, irritated at his tone, "and that's what matters. There's no need to be rude about it."

The officer wasn't sure what else to say but "yes sir" and then called back to the other officer in the station. "There will be a bit of paperwork for the two of you to complete, and we're going to have to bring Sienna back here to process her."

"That is fine. We will stay until she's been processed," Steve said.

The other officer came by, put handcuffs on a teary Sienna, and walked her into the back.

SM

An hour later, Steve and Nat were still in the lobby when officer Brown came by again. "We have her processed now. She will stay here for the night in a separate room from the adults before we move her tomorrow to the juvenile facility. Thank you for your patience and for bringing her in."

"Of course." Steve said. "We will be checking back in later for status updates, and to make sure she is treated fairly. Have a good night."

With that, they walked out of the station. "We weren't terribly persuasive about them treating her fairly," Nat said, remembering their promise to the girl not two hours before.

"I know, but we can't control what happens in the jail. We can control what's out of it. And as much as I would love to bring her back tonight, because Wanda was right, she doesn't deserve jail time, we have to discuss it with everyone. I will call a meeting tomorrow for us all to discuss it."

Steve decided to drive home, let Nat have a break.

Despite how late they got back, Wanda was still up and waiting for them.

"You didn't bring her back?" She asked, genuinely shocked and also partly upset.

"We couldn't do anything tonight, Wanda. She needed to be processed, and we need to talk more about it."

"But she can't stay in there! What's there to talk about? We're heroes and that's where we send the villains. She's not a villain she's a kid."

"Wanda, there's nothing we can do tonight. She has a private cell, she'll be fine. Now, we all need sleep. I'll call a meeting tomorrow, see if Clint can join us, and we'll all talk about it."

She looked like she was about to protest so he gripped her by her shoulders, turned her towards her bedroom, and lightly nudged her towards it. "Sleep."

SM

That night was long for Sienna. She was placed in her cell around 1 a.m. and was told they'd be back at 9, as they were required to give her 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Unfortunately for her, she was up until 3 worrying, and then slept until 5:30. That was sleeping in, by her standards, as she awoke every day at 4, almost no matter what, but apparently the day had knocked her out.

This gave her three and a half hours to lay there, wondering why this had to happen to her. She knew running away was wrong, but many things are wrong, and people who do them don't go to jail for it. Why was her teenage life so unlucky? First, the death of her parents, then the realization that she wasn't wanted, and now this.

She also thought about Steve and Natasha (as she had learned when they brought her in). Had they done what they said they would? Would she be out of there sooner rather than later? Or was that all just an act trying to get her to cooperate? Probably the latter.

Around 9 they came in, let her eat some breakfast, then took her to the juvenile facility.

SM

Around 1 the next day, all the Avengers, save Banner and Thor, were seated around their large dining room table.

Steve started it off. "No one feel like they have to say yes or no to it, and don't let anything but what you truly believe is right change your mind."

Everyone at the table had a vague idea of what was going on, but Steve decided to elaborate. "We are thinking of bringing in a teenage girl. Not a superhero, and she wouldn't be an Avenger, just a girl." He waited to watch the responses, but they were all for him to continue, so he did. "She's 16, will be turning 17 soon, and doesn't have anywhere else to go, except a juvenile detention facility."

"So you want to take in a young criminal?" Rhodes asked, skeptical already.

"No, she isn't a criminal. Well, isn't much of one. She's just tried to run away too many times and they don't trust her to stay in a home. So they have decided to incarcerate her until she's 18 and can legally allowed to live on her own."

Nat decided to jump in then. "There is really no reason for her to be there other than, as she said to us yesterday, running away because no one wants her."

"Okay, so she needs a stable home environment. Are we really able to give that to her?" Pepper asked, knowing how dangerous their lives were. "Is there not someone else we can find?"

"I would say that we can take her, but we have three kids of our own, and she's still a stranger to me. I couldn't very well foster her." Clint said, sadly.

"Unfortunately, no. She doesn't want to be in foster care, or in a home. None of them care about her, and she's been too much of a flight risk for people to want to take her in." Steve said.

"But we have the abilities and the technology and the man power to make sure she doesn't run away!" Wanda said, trying her hardest to convince everyone.

"You don't want to make someone stay where they don't want to be, Wanda." Clint said, "and this girl doesn't seem to want to be anywhere. She would feel imprisoned here if we acted that way."

"She won't run if we show her we care." Nat spoke up again. "She ran because she felt unloved, unwanted. I know we don't really know her, so we don't love her yet, but us going through all of this will show her she's at least wanted."

"Or she'll feel pitied and run again." Tony spoke up for the first time. "I mean, I like her. I watched her a bit on various cameras- which I have now disabled- and she's evaded us three times. She's got guts, I'll give her that, but if we are doing this just because we want to get her out of prison, she may treat it as pity."

"I don't like how she got the jump on me," Sam said, "but I'm not doing this out of pity, and I'll make sure she knows that. I'm down for having her here if she wants to come."

"We're going to put it to a silent vote. Everyone will write either a yes or a no on these papers, and put it in this basket." Steve said, "it has to be unanimous, though. If even one person says no, we'll drop it."

"No Steve, you can't!" Wanda exclaimed, but Vision quieted her.

"We'll do what we can to make her comfortable in there, but we can't force someone to accept something they don't want." Steve said, knowing if one person did say no, he would have to deal with a grumpy Wanda for quite some time, and silently hoped they all wrote yes.

He knew he wanted it, so he wrote yes on his sheet, and then put it in the basket. It was passed around to everyone who wrote their answers on a sheet, and when it came back to him, he grabbed it.

"I'm going to go read the votes in another room, I'll be back shortly."

Steve took the basket into the kitchen, and dumped out the contents, looking at each of them.

All but one said yes. The other one just said "we have to."

Walking back into the room, he said, "the vote is unanimous and I'll be applying to foster her today."

Everyone in the room either breathed a sigh of relief, smiled, or both. Wanda was over the moon.

SM

Juvi is much freer than what she'd experienced of jails, but also probably only 10% as free as it was for me back at her apartment. However, she was pleasantly surprised when she got there, and realized her tears weren't as necessary as yesterday had made her believe. Sure, she still would rather be somewhere else, but she could make do here for a while.

There were strict mealtimes, leisure times, school times, rest times, etc. She also had to talk to a counsellor at least 4 times a week. The first time Sienna spoke with her was when she first got there, before she was allowed to go meet the other people. It was just a rundown of what she could expect of the next year and a bit. Not too bad.

Her roommate wasn't horrible. In for a bunch of small crimes. "I'm Janice." She said, "but people call me Jan. Here for leading a small crimes business. Never violent stuff, but man, I was living the life! They got me here until I turn 18 in 21 months, and then I'm free. Oh, to be young. They blame everything on your underdeveloped brain! Genius! I'll have to be more sneaky when I turn 18, though. I'm sure the sentence would have been much longer had I been of age."

"Um, alrighty." Sienna knew already that she didn't want to hang out with this girl, but also didn't want to get on her bad side. Maybe she could fake being friends with her just to get protection. That seemed like a good idea. So, she decided to introduce herself like Jan did. "Sienna. Kept running away from foster care, fought back too hard against the cops once, minor crimes every now and then but I don't think they know about that."

"Minor crimes, eh? You're my kind of gal, Sienna." Great.

Just then, there was a knock at their door, and a guard came in. "Sienna Montgomery, you're wanted down in the lobby."

Confused, Sienna followed the guard out to the lobby. She hadn't done anything yet! How could she be in trouble?

Once there, she was greeted by a woman wearing a no-nonsense business suit and black rimmed glasses.

"Follow me, please, Ms. Montgomery." Sienna followed her into a room adjacent to the lobby, which had a couple small desks and a larger one. "We must conduct a placement test for your schooling. As we do not know where you are at in your education as after your 13th birthday you disappeared more often than you were in school, you will be tested on knowledge you should have known at 13 onwards to the school year just finishing, which would have been your sophomore year of high school. The test will be four hours long, with a thirty minute meal break in the middle, and two fifteen minute rest breaks at the end of every hour, for a total of a 5 hour test."

"Um, okay." Sienna said, knowing she would do well in certain subjects, such as English, math, and history, but probably not geography or science.

"Let's begin."

With that, Sienna began the easiest hour of testing of her life. She was well above 13 year old knowledge.

After her first break, the science portion became harder, as did the geography. Harder, but not impossible. She worked as much as she could on those subjects, hoping her limited knowledge was enough, and breezed through the rest of the questions. Tripping up only on one history question, and one math question.

During her lunch break, she was allowed to sit with Jan and her friends, Tommy, Duke, Al (short for Alice), Clara and Mag.

The food wasn't the best, but she could get used to it. She would have to.

"Hey!" Clara said as she looked just over Sienna's shoulder. "Isn't that Captain America?"

"Oh no." Sienna said, whipping around, hoping it wasn't true. "He's the one that brought me in."

"Captain America brought you in? Wow. You must have been more important than I thought. I mean, small crimes and running away, fine. But why get the biggest gun available to bring you in?" Jan said.

"Probably because I evaded the Avengers twice and on one of those occasions accidentally took one of their guys out of commission. I mean, he was fine, but his equipment wasn't."

"Dude, forget them. You are my hero." Duke said, reaching across the table to fist bump her.

Well, she thought, at least I'm getting a good friend base, here. Probably some of the toughest kids around. She didn't have to like them, but knowing they would fight for her instead of against her really helped.

Looks like Steve really did come through on helping her out even if he didn't mean for that to happen like that.

"Ah well, beginners luck. I'm now stuck in here and I guess put on Avengers watch if he's come in here today." Sienna said, wanting to play it cool, even though she too was really happy about that.

"Either way. You've now earned the spot in our group you were trying out for. Congrats. You're one of us now." Tommy said, also fist bumping her. Well, good.

They made polite conversation, still buzzing about the Avenger showing up, for the rest of her break until she had to go back.

"Two and a quarter hours until I'm free." She said, winking at them as she headed back to her tests.

SM

Two hours later, she was just finishing up the final part of the exam. It had progressively gotten harder, but she felt like she at least passed what she was supposed to know up until this point.

"Your position in school will be determined by end of day tomorrow. If you are too far behind, you can start catch up next week, but if not, regular school doesn't start until the end of August." Said the no-nonsense woman.

"Thank you." She said, backing out again.

She went to find her newly minted (albeit, in her mind for now, pretend) friends, but found out they were at work in the kitchen. So, she decided to look around the compound. Not the worst place to live, but constantly under the scrutiny of adults and never allowed to do things she chose for herself. All she knew was that she was glad she wasn't a real criminal, and as soon as she turned 18, she would be able to go out and live as normal of a life as possible.

SM

Steve walked back into the Avengers building and was almost immediately attacked by one hyper teen/adult, and was bombarded by all the other Avengers in the building.

"So, where is she? Is she too shy to come in? I can go get her." Wanda said, not knowing why she was so eager.

"First of all, applying to foster people takes time. Secondly, you all are treating her more like an animal than a person. When she gets here she will meet everyone on her own terms, maybe at dinner or something, if that happens first. We will not be bombarding her. Thirdly, the people at the detention center don't want her to know about this until it's official, or close to being official, because they have to inspect this place first, and they don't want to get her hopes up. They will be here in a couple days' time so I need everyone's help to get this place looking spotless, but lived in. We also should prepare a bedroom to show them we are prepared to accommodate her."

Wanda seemed to slink back a bit, but was happy to find out that they were once step closer to getting her out of the detention center.

"Okay so Pepper and Tony, can you set up her room? Wanda and I will go out grocery shopping tonight to stuff the fridge with food that will make it look balanced and fun for a kid, Rhodey, Clint, if you're staying, Sam and Vision, could you start cleaning up? All weapons in rooms they will be able to see, but that won't be accessible to her if we're accepted."

"Sure thing, boss." Tony said, going off to start ordering supplies with Pepper.

They all set off to work on their tasks, Wanda and Steve helping to clean until they had to go out.

In the grocery store in their civilian clothes that they tried to conceal themselves in, they were both very uncomfortable.

"Okay so apart from fruits and vegetables, what do kids your age like?" Steve asked, picking up foods he had never had in his time, and wouldn't think of buying if it weren't for the new teenager. "Why don't you eat this stuff?"

"We didn't have that stuff in Sokovia. I've been trying to eat your American food, but I don't eat much of what I don't understand."

"We should call Clint." They both said at the same time.

"Barton! It's Steve. We were just wondering what to buy for Sienna, or to make it look like we're ready to bring in another teenager?" Steve asked. "Uh huh, uh huh, okay." He repeated, writing stuff down on the notepad in his pocket. "Great. Thanks." He turned to Wanda. "Pop Tarts and Cheerios for breakfast, in case she likes that. Granola bars. No nuts in them. A bag of chips, the mixed kind with different flavors inside. Popcorn. Also Kraft Dinner, tacos, which could be fun to have her first night with us if we get accepted, and then all our regular groceries."

"That's it?" Wanda asked, skeptical.

"He said just to cover some basics until we find out what she likes. Also, you should pick out one item you'd like to try from at least two aisles, so we can figure out what you do and don't like. I'm sure whatever you don't like can go to the Barton kids."

"Sounds good." Wanda said, smiling. She was excited to learn about the foods of the Americans.

The total came to much more than Wanda was expecting, and almost offered to take her crackers and chocolate bar out, but Steve was insistent and paid for it on his credit card.

"Saved a good amount of money in a bank when I was younger. Invested it right before I went into the war. When I became unfrozen, I was surprised to find my account still open. Investing money gets you a lot in return when you're away from it for 70 years." Steve said, winking at her.

She smiled at him and helped him load the car up.

"When we get back we can watch a movie and you can try one of your snacks. How does that sound?" Steve asked, pulling out of the parking lot.

"Amazing." Wanda replied. She already thought of the Avengers building as home, but it seemed like it even more now that they were expecting a new person.

SM

"Okay guys, today's the day! Is everyone ready?" Pepper said, waking everyone up by banging on their doors.

"Pepper, they aren't coming until 2 p.m., we don't need to be up at 8." Tony said, whining behind her and walking to the kitchen.

"We're ready. There's nothing else we can do." Steve said, trying to reassure the panicking woman.

"No, we aren't. Wanda's room is still a mess! Vision still walks through walls! Clint isn't here even though he said he would be, and he has Nat with him! They're going to think we're hiding them for some reason. And Sam still hates Sienna!"

"Pepper." Tony said, putting his hands on her shoulders and turning her to face him. "Steve will see to Wanda. Steve?" Steve nodded and headed for the teenager's room. "Vision, no more walking through walls today. Clint said he would be here at noon, which means Nat will too. Sam, don't hate Sienna. See, we're good."

"You're right. Okay. You're right." Pepper said, closing her eyes and breathing deeply.

Tony nodded and then kissed her.

"We're going to be fine. Until we get another teenager. Then we're in for a rough time. We'll have gone from none to two in less than two months."

Meanwhile, Steve walked to Wanda's room, knocking on the door before letting himself in. Somehow, she was still asleep after all that commotion. But Pepper was right, her room was a mess. "Wanda," he coaxed, gently trying to wake her up. "Pepper wants you up now."

"Mmm it's not even 9 yet." Wanda said, turning over on her bed to face her head down into her pillow.

"Fine. You get one more hour and then you're getting up. Pepper will have a fit if she sees that your room is a mess." Steve said, backing out of her room. They didn't need to be up as early as Pepper had them up, and he would help Wanda clean her room later.

An hour later, Steve walked back into her room to try again. "Wanda, it's time to get up."

"Five more minutes."

"No, now." He said, pulling her sheets off of her.

She immediately pulled them back up with her telekinesis. "Five more minutes."

Steve pulled the sheets off her again, and gave her five quick swats. "Up. Now. I want Sienna here too, but you're the one who begged me to let her stay in the first place. And they're coming to check out the place today, and your room is a mess. Get up."

He stood above her with her blankets in one hand and his arms crossed.

"Fine, fine. I'm up. What was that, by the way?" She asked, rubbing her butt.

"A tried and true way to get people out of bed. C'mon. Get dressed and we'll get ready.

SM

It had been a week since Sienna entered the facility. She was starting to really like Jan and her friends, especially Duke. If he weren't a convict, she would have considered dating him. She still may. There are many more months left until she's out.

"Hey Sienna, want to play go fish?" Al asked, pulling her towards their table, not giving her time to answer.

"I don't think I have a choice in the matter, do I?" Sienna asked, accepting her five cards, and waiting as everyone else arranged theirs.

"T, do you have any 2s?" She asked, looking at Tommy.

"Go fish." He said, and she picked up an 8.

"Montgomery!" A guard yelled, making her jump. "You're wanted in counselor Brown's office."

She sighed, but surrendered. "Looks like you guys will have to play this round without me." And threw her cards back into the "go fish" pile.

She walked to counselor Brown's office but was surprised to see her standing outside it. "Ms. Montgomery. How are you adjusting?"

"Well, I don't have the freedom I did before, but I talk to more people now, so I guess I'm fine."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that. You seem to be settling in quite nicely." She nodded, unsure what to say to 'you're in jail and it doesn't suck for you right now'. "I do have a bit of news for you, which I think you may like even more than both your previous living arrangements."

Sienna was officially confused. What would she like better than freedom, and why were things changing now that she was starting to fit in?

"What do you mean?" She asked, her heart beating a mile a minute and she had no idea why.

"Well, someone has put in an application to foster children, but have decided they want to foster you."

"What?" Sienna breathed. She didn't think anyone would ever want that, but now that it's here, she doesn't know if _she_ wanted that.

"C'mon. I'll introduce them to you. See what you think." And with that, she opened the door.

No. Way.

"Hi, we've met before. I'm Steve, this is Nat, Tony, Pepper, Clint, Sam, Vision and Wanda. I know this will sound like it's coming completely out of the blue, but we have decided that, if it's alright with you, we would like to foster you, so you can have a stable home environment, and not have to be here, until you turn 18 and can decide what you want to do yourself. We want you in our lives. We know you have no reason to trust us yet, but we'd love to get a chance to earn your trust." Steve said, nervously, trying to have her think back to what she told him in the car.

Sienna fainted.

 **Please review! There will be more smacks and a spanking coming up, I just wanted to try and make it flow to some degree, and spanking someone you don't know is rather strange. It'll come soon. Be patient. Thanks :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Contains non consensual disciplinary spanking of a minor. Don't like? Don't read. It's fiction. It doesn't mean it's condoned in real life.**

Chapter 5:

Nat was the quickest one to react, grabbing the girl as she was falling.

"Well, that could have gone better." She said, holding the girl around her torso. She hastily moved her about to get a better grip under her knees, and lifted her up. "She's fairly light for a tall girl like her."

"She was underweight when she came in, and I haven't noticed her eating habits in here, but she doesn't seem to have gained much weight." Said counsellor Brown. "We should take her to the infirmary."

Nat carried Sienna down a couple corridors to the infirmary, the rest of the Avengers following behind her, and Pepper by Sienna's head, guarding it against hitting anything.

"We'll have the doctors check her out when she comes to." Said counsellor Brown, as a couple nurses followed Nat into the infirmary. "For now, I suggest you all staying out here in the waiting area. I think the shock of seeing you all played a key factor in her fainting spell, and we don't want to overstimulate her again."

Steve nodded and gestured for his friends to sit down on the chairs around the infirmary' small waiting area. Nat came out a minute later, looking slightly disturbed.

"You okay?" Steve asked, concerned.

"She's too skinny, Steve. She's my height and she definitely weighs less than I do. That girl is just skin and bones."

"But she packs a wallop." Said Sam, standing up from his chair and walking over to the two of them. "I mean, sure, she looked slightly malnourished when I saw her in the alley, but she had tons of energy, which she wouldn't have had her body not been okay."

"I'm not a doctor." Said Nat, thinking of Bruce, and how she wished he were here to help them, "but when we bring her back, we're going to have to make sure she eats properly, with lots of vitamins. You can be skinny and strong but not that light."

"We'll figure that out later." Steve said, worriedly. "Until then, we have to convince her to come home with us. Sure, she won't really have a choice once I sign the final papers to become her foster parent, but I don't want to go make her do something she doesn't want to do, and if she says that she really doesn't want to come, I won't be the person to force her."

Wanda, overhearing this, knew that she would take action if Sienna said no. She was able to manipulate the Avengers' minds last year, she'd help persuade Sienna to say yes. She'd been in a sort of prison before. She wasn't leaving this innocent girl in one.

SM

Sienna awoke to a man in a doctor costume leaning over her. "What's going on?" She asked, sitting up.

"You fainted when you met your new foster parents."

"What? Oh." Sienna said, remembering. Her heart started to speed up thinking about it. People wanted her. They actually wanted her. She didn't believe it. She couldn't believe it. People haven't actually wanted her in years and people certainly hadn't respected her enough to ask her if she wanted to move in with them ever before.

In all her jumbled thoughts about being wanted or not wanted, she didn't hear the doctor until he started snapping his fingers in front of her face. "Hello? Sienna Montgomery? Can you hear me?"

"Oh, yeah. I can. Sorry." She said, distractedly, and tried to bring her mind back to the room.

"I said that I was going to run some tests on you. Is that alright?"

"Yeah, sure." She opened her tongue for the compressor, let him take her blood pressure, look in her eyes, and finally, take a sample of her blood.

"You can just rest in here while we wait for the results of your test. You're probably fine, it was probably just you being overwhelmed, but we're going to check and make sure you're healthy while you're here. How does that sound?" He asked.

"Fine," Sienna replied, leaning back on the bed. "Are they... still here?"

"Yes they are, they are all still in the waiting room. Do you want me to bring them in?"

"No, thank you. If it's all the same to you, I'd like some time to think." Sienna replied, closing her eyes to try and process everything.

"I'll tell them you're indisposed, then." And with that, he turned and left her room. She heard him talking to the people outside, but she was thankful she didn't see her door open again.

Fostering? She didn't want to be fostered again. She had been in too many foster homes and group homes to be able to trust they would keep her. And if they were the only ones who would take her, when they eventually gave her up again, she'd just end up right back here. But it was nice to feel respected enough for them to ask her if she wanted it.

Would it make more sense to stay in juvi until she turned 18? She could make friends, wouldn't feel abandoned again, could get to know people who have shared life experience-to a certain degree, anyways.

She had just closed her eyes for what seemed like a minute when she heard commotion coming from outside her room and then Jan burst in, followed by the Avengers and a doctor.

"Janice, you cannot just burst into the infirmary like that. I have called security and they will be coming to pick you up, now please leave my patient alone."

"No." Said Jan defiantly. "Montgomery's my roommate and I ain't going nowhere until someone tells me what is going on with her."

The doctor looked like he wanted to argue, but Sienna spoke up first.

"Actually, is it okay if she stays just for a couple minutes? I really need to talk to a friend right now."

"I don't want to leave you alone with her." Said Steve, looking sideways at Jan and crossing his arms.

"Just because we're inmates doesn't mean we're bad people." Said Jan, "I heard she was hurt and I wanted to make sure she was okay."

"I trust her, it's fine. Wait outside the door if you aren't sure, but I'm okay." Sienna said, trying in vain to keep her voice level. All she really wanted was someone to help her figure out what she wanted and what she should do.

"Alright. You have five minutes before security is coming to bring you to solitary for a day. You know the rules, Jan, and you broke them."

"Yeah, yeah, that's fine." Said Jan, not looking at him but sitting down roughly on a chair by Sienna's bedside.

Sienna waited for them to leave before she told Jan everything.

"So, they want to foster you?" Jan said, looking as if she were skeptical and jealous of the idea.

"I don't know. They say they do, but if this is just going to be another thing that lasts a couple of months until they find something new, I don't want to go. I've been through 4 foster homes and one group home in about 3 years. I'm not in a mood to add to that list."

"But man, you'd get out!" Jan said, getting annoyed. "I'd give anything for that!"

"I'd be going to live with the Avengers." Sienna replied, trying to make her see her side. "Their lives are busy. I doubt they have time for someone like me, and they probably have just as much security as this place, the only difference would be that I wouldn't have people to talk to like you and the guys. And it could get dangerous."

Jan was getting very frustrated at this point. "But you don't know the kind of freedom you'd get! This whole week can probably just get wiped right away, they'd probably let you get a job. And they might teach you some moves! You could become one of them. As much as I like a life of crime, working to help the little people would be amazing. Girl, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and if you don't take it, I'm gonna beat your ass. And if you take a while to decide, the others will find out you're getting out and beat you anyways. Everyone gets jealous when people leave. But if you've got an opportunity to, you should! This place has set meal times, bed times, school, recreation, jobs. You would be able to negotiate those things in a foster home. They'd be good to you!"

"Jan, I see what you're saying, but you've never been in a foster home before. There's a reason I ran away from most of them. If I go with these guys, I couldn't run if things got bad. They have too much power in making me stay."

"I don't think these people will be like the other foster families. They're the good guys. The ones who save people. They ain't gonna be abusive, loveless, or whatever else you've been through. You gotta do this. And besides, if you're with them when I get out, I'd visit you. We'd either get great tips on how to evade the law, or they'd help get me on the right track to stay away from the illegal shit."

"I can say a term of agreement is that you come with me, if you wanted."

"Nah, I can't go. Don't have bail. I am a criminal. They're keeping me in here until I am legally no longer required to be here."

Just then, security came in the door to escort Jan out and to solitary.

"It's been good knowing you, Montgomery. I'll see y'all later." Jan said, as she was walked out.

Sienna knew she had to do it now. Jan had made some good points, and truth be told, if she gained enough of their trust, if they weren't any good at being a home for her, she could leave in a couple of months. No big deal.

It was then that Steve and Pepper came in with the doctor on his tail.

"We've run all the test and it has come up that you are severely lacking in iron, but also low in calcium, vitamin D, and many more you won't recognize. All that, triggered by the shock of the amount of people here for you, is probably why you fainted today. I'm going to prescribe you some vitamins for you to start taking daily." The doctor said, "have you thought any more about going through with the fostering process?"

"We'd love to have you at our home." Pepper said sweetly. "It's a little crazy sometimes, but we're a family, and we'd love it if you joined it."

"Since when do I get to choose if I go with someone?" Sienna asked, looking past Pepper to the doctor.

"You don't. They haven't put through the last bit of paperwork since they want you to have the choice. Had they done it all already, we wouldn't be asking you, we'd be telling you." The doctor said, looking at her expectantly.

Sienna had never had a choice before, and she appreciated getting one now. It was really considerate of them to let her choose if she wanted to go.

She knew before asking any questions that she would do it after her talk with Jan, but making it seem skeptical made it so she had some leverage. She could negotiate her way. Only problem was, what does one ask for?

"I think I will. On one condition." Sienna said, suddenly realizing the one thing she wanted.

"You're making conditions? Young lady it's either this or jail you should be counting your lucky stars-" the doctor started, but was interrupted by Pepper.

"We'll see what we can do about anything you wish."

"I would like to be homeschooled. No one would need to teach me. I can follow along with the materials." Knowing how early she got up daily, she would be able to finish all of her school work before midday, and would have the entire afternoon and evening free. It's what she was planning on doing after she turned 18 anyways.

The adults in the room, however, seemed confused.

"You don't want to go to a regular high school?" Steve asked, a hint of surprise in his voice. "Meet kids your own age?"

"I got my results back from my placement test. I'm a year behind. This way, I may be able to catch up and be caught up with kids my age by the end of the school year." She didn't want to give away her wake up time yet. Until they figured that out, at least a couple hours in the morning she would be able to be alone. "And I've been alone so much I would be an outcast at a school."

"Well, actually," started Pepper, and everyone turned to look at her, "that would almost be better. Our schedules are crazy and if an enemy or someone unfriendly found out about this, Sienna could be taken easily from a school."

Steve seemed to think about this for a minute. "I see your point. Okay, Sienna. You have a deal. And a home."

SM

When Sienna was discharged a couple minutes later, she still hadn't wrapped her head around the words "a home". She hadn't had one since 2012, not a proper one at least, despite her first foster parents' best efforts to make it that way. What made Steve think this time would be different?

This would be once again a temporary home. Which is very different from a home.

Sienna didn't mind, though. As Jan pointed out, temporary home is very different from jail. She would probably be coming back to jail once they didn't want her anymore, but she would learn to revel in the fact that at least for now, she would have a real place to live.

She walked back to her and Jan's cell alone, as Steve and Pepper needed to sign documents, and it appeared as though the other Avengers had left. She didn't have much to grab, just a couple of things her previous group home had dropped off, which was only a couple books and a picture of her parents. They had also dropped off some clothes for her, but she wasn't allowed to wear them in the facility.

Walking back to the front, she noticed everyone staring at her. She was just approaching the entrance when Mag, Duke, Tommy, Al and Clara came up to her.

"What? You leaving?" Tommy asked, eyeing her stuff.

"Yeah someone has decided they want to foster me. Don't worry, when they change their mind, I'll be back."

"Nah man, you're getting out! Good for you!" Tommy said, hugging her.

"Good for her? She's one of us. She goes out there, she's a traitor. You ain't leaving." Duke said, standing too close to her for her liking based on his tone.

"I am. I don't have a choice."

"I think it's cool." Al said, trying to show her solidarity with Sienna.

"It's not cool. It's the wimp's way out of this. I thought you were here until you're 18, and the first time an offer comes up, you take it? Too afraid in here? Too weak to make it?" Duke said, taking menacing steps closer to her.

"It's not that! I don't get a choice when I'm getting fostered. They just move you. It's the system."

"You do, though. Beat up Mag. You'll have to stay then. Real arrest. Not just one small crime."

"What? No. I'm not letting her touch me." Mag said, standing defensively.

"Yeah and I won't hurt my friends." Sienna replied, looking defiantly up at Duke, much more certain on the outside than how she felt inside. "I thought you were my friend. Why are you doing this? Isn't this a good thing?"

"No. It ain't. You don't understand and that's why I'm mad. You know what, take something to remember me by." Duke said, raising his fist.

At that point, Tommy grabbed Duke, and held him back while Al grabbed Mag, who looked like she was on Duke's side. They were struggling for a bit but Duke broke free, and right as his fist was about to connect with Sienna's face, a hand grabbed it, stopping the assault immediately.

It was Steve. He pushed Duke backwards, as guards were coming out to restrain him, and turned to Sienna. "I think it's time we leave."

He kept her in between him and the wall, making sure nothing else happened between any of the other kids. She turned back as he was walking her along towards Pepper who was back behind a reinforced window, and waved a sad goodbye to Al, Tommy and Clara, who had all watched her go with sadness instead of anger.

"Are you alright?" Pepper asked, coming to check her over.

Sienna pulled her face out of her prying hands. "I'm fine. Let's just leave."

"Okay. I was just trying to be nice." Pepper said, looking a little saddened before turning and following the guards out of the facility.

SM

In the car, Sienna took in her surroundings. Steve in the front seat, Pepper in the back with her, and no other Avengers in sight.

Ignoring the fact that they were being overly nice and protective and babying of her, she asked the question that had been on her mind since she was discharged.

"Where is everyone else?"

"We didn't want you to faint again at the sight of all of them, so I sent them home, only allowing Pepper to stay. You'll meet everyone much slower at the house." Steve said.

Bristling at the fainting comment, Sienna retorted, "I'm not some baby. You don't have to coddle me. I can handle it now. It was just a shock then."

"Well, it's already been done." Steve said, keeping his tone light. It was infuriating to Sienna how calm he was about all of this, but didn't know how to respond, so she turned to Pepper.

"And why'd he let you stay? Who are you, anyways?"

"I'm not an Avenger. I'm just married to one. No special powers, no desire to be a superhero, I'm just a regular human being. That's why I stayed." Pepper said, showing a sign of irritation towards the girl, but smiling nevertheless.

Liking that she was getting riled up, but not knowing why that was so, Sienna kept egging her. "Oh so you're just the person to say 'I'm on your side. We're just like you.' Well here's some news for you. None of you are regular. And I don't need some superhero clan coming to save me. I don't need saving. Just drop me off on the side of the road, and I'll find my way back to my apartment. I'll be 18 in just over a year. Don't worry about me. I don't need you, you don't need me, so let's skip whatever twisted reason you have for taking me in and go straight to the eventual abandonment early."

She would have continued but it looked like Steve was going to give her her wish as he pulled over to the side of the road. She waited in anticipation as the car came to a stop before attempting to undo her seatbelt.

However, before she could reach it, his large hand was holding the belt in place. "No. I am not letting you go. I am going to-" but he was cut off.

"So maybe we aren't regular, but you do need someone to take care of you. You are not allowed to live on your own until you are 18 and that gives you two options." Pepper said, very angrily. "You either come with us, or you go back to jail, which, by the looks of it, wouldn't welcome you back with open arms. You are the child. You do not get to dictate what we do with our lives or, for the time being, what you do with yours. You can contribute to whatever you want, but nothing is approved without our consent for, as you said, just over a year. Being rude and disrespectful will not be tolerated. Am I understood?"

"Yes." Said Sienna, subdued.

"And another thing." Pepper started, still raging mad. "We are not taking you in for a twisted reason. We like you, we've seen what you can do and we respect that. You did not deserve jail time."

"I told you I would help you out, and this is me doing that." Steve let go of her seatbelt but was still turned around facing her. "Now, we don't have too many rules. But being respectful is one of them. We'll let you know of the others later today, but let me just get this straight. I don't tolerate that from Wanda, and I won't from you. You speak to us like that again, your butt and my hand are going to be having a very uncomfortable conversation. Got it?"

She didn't, really. She thought about what that could mean, but in the heat of the moment, couldn't think of anything.

Seeing her confusion, Steve sighed and relaxed a bit. It would make spanking her much harder if that hadn't been used as a form of discipline on her before. "Did your parents ever spank you?"

She knew what the word meant. A couple of her friends had mentioned it happening to them before and they said it made sitting hurt. But that had only been when she was little, and she hadn't heard the word since then.

"No. I think you're talking about a kind of discipline, though. I was only ever put on timeout as a child and I was a good kid until the foster homes came into play." She said, looking down at her lap and blushing furiously.

"You're still a good kid." Pepper said, putting her hand on her back. "You're just making some bad decisions. And you won't be spanked for every bad decision. It will depend. Sometimes, it may be clear that you just need time to cool off, or to have privileges taken away. I'm not typically in control of that, but as you can see, I lost my temper today. Let's try not to have that happen again, okay?"

"Alright." Said Sienna, still looking at her lap.

"Okay, well now that we've talked about the hardest part, the rest of the day should be a piece of cake. Let's get going." Steve put up a blank expression, but was nervous inside. He was fine with spanking people, and he certainly at least swatted Wanda on a weekly basis. But she had had experience with that before coming to the Avengers. How was he going to deal with it with someone who didn't know what was going to happen?

SM

They pulled into their place some 45 minutes later, and Steve and Pepper got out as soon as they had put the vehicle in park. Sienna, however, who had kept her eyes trained on her lap since she had been scolded in the car, was leery.

Steve opened her door for her, and looked in expectantly. "We aren't as bad as we seem, I promise." He said, smiling at her. It took some of her butterflies away.

She unbuckled her seatbelt as slowly as she could, letting it rest completely before moving to get out of the SUV.

Steve moved out of her way, and closed the door behind her once she was fully out.

"Let's go upstairs." He said, walking towards a staircase on the end of the garage with her following behind. "I'll show you to your room and let you get settled and rest until we make dinner. Do you like tacos?"

She nodded. All of a sudden, her outburst in the car seemed entirely wrong. She was indeed nervous to meet everyone else. These people could certainly be abusive, or manipulative, or on the opposite spectrum, too nice, which would probably irritate the hell out of her. They could be overbearing, or never there. She really had no idea, and that scared her.

They walked up the stairs and through a bunch of halls, never seeing another person - Pepper had disappeared - and right as Sienna thought she would never be able to find her way around again, Steve stopped, and opened a door.

"You'll be staying here." He said, and she looked inside the room. It was bigger than any bedroom she had ever had, including the one she had back at her parent's place. It had a bed, dresser with a mirror overtop of it, a desk, a tv, lots of free space and two doors. It was almost as big as her entire apartment.

"Those lead to your closet and your bathroom." Steve said, pointing to each one. "Your bathroom is private, but you do have a neighbor, Wanda. Beside her is Vision, and the rest of us are scattered around the vicinity in the various bedrooms."

"Wow." Was all Sienna could think to say.

"I'll leave you to get used to the room. Are you hungry? It's after noon, I can bring you something or show you where the kitchen is to make yourself something." Steve said, watching her still as she gaped at the room.

"No, I'm not hungry." She said truthfully. Her nerves had taken over and she couldn't imagine eating anything.

"Okay. Well, I'll send someone up with a snack anyways, just in case you change your mind later. And we should have vitamins for you by dinner time." Steve said, closing the door behind him.

Sienna didn't know why they were leaving her in her room all afternoon, but she didn't mind. She could pretend she was alone, living off her parent's wealth in the not too distant future.

She put her stuff on the desk and then walked to the bed, feeling the sheets before sitting down on it. It was unbelievable. She took off her shoes and laid properly on the bed, with her head on the pillow. Definitely comfier than her bed in juvi and not springy like her bed at her apartment.

She knew she would fall asleep if she stayed on the bed without doing anything, so she moved to the dresser to open the drawers. There was more drawer space than she had clothes. In fact, she only had about 4 outfits in total with her.

She hastily moved those clothes before she forgot about moving them later and they wrinkled in her bag, then went to explore what was behind the two doors. The first revealed a closet. Not really a walk in, but she didn't need lots of space- she didn't even have enough clothes to fill one drawer of her dresser.

The second revealed a nice sized bathroom. Her entire room showed her that they had money, but it wasn't over the top. She had a bathtub, a stand up shower, a toilet, and two sinks. She wasn't sure what she would need two for, but she supposed it would come in handy; she could quickly wash her clothes in one, and brush her teeth in the other. She noticed a new toothbrush and mint toothpaste in the middle of both of the sinks.

There were also towels in the bathroom, and since she didn't have anything else to do all afternoon, she decided to properly shower. It was exquisite, nice and warm water, and she stayed in for about 15 minutes, ten minutes longer than she had all week.

When she got out, she changed into another of her outfits and washed the one she had worn out of the facility in the sink, and hung it up to dry on the edge of the tub.

She then walked back out to the room and picked up a book to read. She would have checked out the tv but had no idea which channels would show what, or what any of the shows on tv would be about anymore.

She had only been reading for a few minutes when a knock sounded on her door. "Yes?" She asked, sitting up and starting to get off the bed when the door opened.

"Hi, I'm your neighbor." The girl said, and Sienna put together that it must be Wanda. "I brought you an apple, some crackers, and a couple cookies." She said, showing her plate.

"Uh, yeah. Thanks. You can just put them on the dresser there." Sienna said, motioning for the free counter space.

Wanda put it down and then stood there awkwardly, before seemingly making a decision for herself and walking more into the room. Sienna stood up to meet her as she stuck out her hand. "I'm Wanda."

"Sienna." She said, shaking her hand. This was pretty awkward for her as well, and both of them stood there for a minute.

"Um, feel free to grab any of that to eat." Sienna said, sitting back down on the bed.

"Oh, no thank you. I just had lunch." Wanda said.

"Okay." Sienna said, picking her book back up and starting to read it. She hoped Wanda would get the hint and leave her alone. She didn't.

"Do you want a tour of the place? It can be confusing if you don't know where to go."

"No, I'm okay for now." Sienna said, not looking up from her page.

"Oh, okay." Said Wanda, sounding slightly disheartened. "Do you want to do anything with me?"

She didn't, really, but before she retorted what she wanted to, she remembered the one rule she knew; don't be disrespectful. She didn't want a spanking from Steve, especially not this early on, so she decided to just shrug her shoulders.

"Okay." Wanda said, looking around thoughtfully. "I don't know what to suggest."

Right then, a colorful man walked through the wall. Sienna gasped in shock.

"Who are you?" She asked, very startled.

"Vis, you can't just do that. She's not used to it yet!" Wanda exclaimed.

"Very sorry." 'Vis'-she put together that this was Vision- said to her before turning to Wanda. "Also, Cap wants to train with everyone this afternoon. Save for you." Vis said turning towards Sienna.

"Why can't she come?" Wanda asked, perplexed.

"Do you not remember our meeting yesterday? We agreed to not allow Sienna to train with us to ensure she wouldn't get any ideas of becoming one of us. We all want her to have a normal life."

Sienna bristled. "So you're deciding all these things for me, then?"

"As you are not of age yet, we must decide many things for you. Also, none of us want someone who had another choice of the matter go into this life. It is not a pleasant one." Vision said, looking meaningfully at her. "Wanda and I must go, now. You may resume your reading."

He ushered Wanda out of the room, closing the door behind it. Sienna tried to go back to her reading, but found she couldn't. She had never really wanted to be an Avenger, or any kind of superhero, but now that she was told she couldn't, she wanted to.

She set her book down and padded carefully to the door, grabbing a couple crackers on the way. She wasn't particularly hungry still, but she was feeling peckish, and figured if she was going to go out and get lost in the building, she might as well bring a little something.

She opened the door leading out into the hallway, and stepped out. Deciding she would go right down the hallway, she began walking towards the end of it and began her exploring.

SM

Sienna had gotten thoroughly lost, but she did manage to see many rooms and areas she could identify. She found the kitchen, and grabbed herself a bottle of water from the fridge. She also found the dining room, a couple living rooms, some storage closets, a couple rooms with locked doors, a few bathrooms, elevators, figured out where bedrooms were, not that she knew who they belonged to, and an indoor pool. She had yet to find the training area, though. Nor had she found the garage again.

She rounded another corner and jumped, very glad she had drank all her water at that point.

"Hi." The guy said. "I'm Clint. Didn't mean to scare you. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Sienna said bitterly, upset with both herself for letting him surprise her, and him for doing it in the first place. "Aren't you all supposed to be training?"

He looked at her with a dad look, which would have made his kids tone it down, but didn't seem to have an affect on someone his size. "I'm retired. Don't really train anymore."

"You're retired? You don't look that old."

Clint laughed, and put his hand on her shoulder. "I like you." She quickly wiggled out, uncomfortable under his touch, and he explained. "I've taken enough risks. I'm a dad of three now. I have to keep their best interests at heart, and my wife's."

Sienna nodded her understanding, then moved to go around him.

"Where are you going?" Clint asked her, as she walked around.

"Exploring the place." She said, not turning back.

"No, why don't you come back to the kitchen with me. We can talk a bit, wait for the others to finish training."

"Thanks, but no thanks." She said, turning around to look at him quickly before continuing down the hall.

"Okay, well you aren't allowed down that hallway, so that's not a request." Clint said, getting ready to go after her but hoping he wouldn't have to. "You aren't supposed to know where the training area is, but I suppose it's evident now. You can go down any other corridor, but that one could be potentially dangerous for you."

Sienna stopped and turned around. "So what? Is that another rule? Be respectful and don't go down the training hallway?"

"Well I know you're so good at that first one already, but yeah, basically." Clint said, raising an eyebrow at her tone but not saying anything.

She huffed, but did nothing. If she continued down the hallway and was able to actually get near the area, Clint would probably tell Steve he had told her not to and she would be in trouble on her first day.

She didn't hate it here, nor did she particularly like the circumstances, but she didn't hate it, and she didn't want to set that kind of reputation for herself on the first day.

So, rather wisely, as Clint thought, she left that hallway and continued to explore, eventually finding the garage again. She was trying to retrace her steps when she ran into the guy she recognized as the first Avenger she ever fought.

"Oh, hey there, Tink. Lost?" He asked, laughing slightly at the bewildered look on her face. "You're kind of a little pixie, escaping so easily, and evading people. Plus, right now, you look like Tinkerbell when she was sulking and mad that Peter was spending time with Wendy." He said, explaining his nickname.

"My name's Sienna." She said, irritably. "My parents picked it so no one could give me a nickname."

"Well that's too bad, Tink, because I'm going to stick to that name for now. You can call me anything you want, if you don't want Sam or want revenge." He said, a twinkle in his eye.

"How about jerk then?" She said. She had had another idea for a name for him, but figured she shouldn't use it.

He laughed. "I guess that's fair. Well, I've had worse names, Tink." He said, bumping his shoulder into hers.

She smiled a bit, but tried to keep up the façade of not enjoying the name, even a little bit. "I bet you have, jerk."

"Alright, alright. And where does little Tink need to find herself?" He asked.

"I'm trying to find the room I'm staying in. I can do it on my own." She said feebly, but knew that unless she had someone show her like he was offering to, she wouldn't succeed in finding it.

"You mean your bedroom?" He asked, in response to 'the room I'm staying in'. "I took me forever to figure this place out, you won't be able to find things for a while. You're next to Wanda, right?" She nodded. "Follow me."

He lead her up a staircase, and down a couple hallways. They met up with Nat in the last one before her room.

"Hey there, kiddo. Settling in?"

"Yeah." She said, and then mumbling under her breath, "what's with all the nicknames in this place?"

"Great," Nat said, having heard her, but having decided to ignore her. "I'm just down the hall from you if you ever want anything. Go out your door, take a left, your first right down the hallway and I'm the first one on your left."

"Um, okay." Sienna said, not knowing why she would need this information.

"Well, I'm going to take her back to her room." Sam said, "I'll see you later, Nat."

Sienna followed him the rest of the way to her bedroom and then slumped down onto the bed.

This place was so big she didn't know if she would ever be able to find her way around it without a guide. And eventually, that would get embarrassing.

SM

About an hour later, another new head popped into her room.

"Hi." He said, letting himself in. "I'm Tony. Big fan of you, by the way, seen a lot of your footage. Nice one, at the theatre."

"Um, thanks." She said, not sure if that was a compliment.

Tony looked around for a minute. "Well, the boss said to come fetch you and show you to the dining room. Dinner's ready."

"Oh, well I'm not terribly hungry." She said, knowing she had told Steve she was down for tacos, but not really wanting to see everyone at the moment. "I'll just eat the apple and crackers I was brought earlier."

"Yeah, well you need to take some vitamins or something, and Steve likes it when we all have dinner together. So let's go."

SM

During dinner, Steve decided to let her know of the other "house rules". On top of the respect and the no training, she also was to be in bed by 12 unless it was a special occasion, and that was only while she was on summer holidays, would be required to eat at least two meals a day, take her vitamins daily, do whatever the adults told her, no more running away and as a general rule, not do anything her parents wouldn't like.

"Oh yeah?" She said, getting up and pushing her plate away when he said the last thing. "How would you know what my parents would and wouldn't like? They're dead. They died years ago and there's nothing you can do to bring them back to question them so don't try and pull that on me. I have done many things my parents wouldn't like for the sake of freedom and living, and many more things because they didn't trust anyone and I made the mistake of doing the opposite! So you want me to follow their lead? Fine."

Everyone looked taken aback. Steve's face was a mixture of surprise and anger, but he managed to get a grip on himself. "Look, we're all new at this.

Evidently, we should have thought more about our wording and choices, but outbursts like that will not be tolerated. This is your final warning. Now, sit down, and let's finish this meal more peacefully than we started it."

The look on his face showed her that there was no room for argument, so she begrudgingly did as she was told.

The rest of the meal was eaten in relative silence, and when it was over, Sienna got up and asked Wanda to show her one more time where the room was.

When they got there, but before Sienna could enter it, Wanda stopped her.

"You know, I have the same rules, despite me being legally an adult. And I don't blame you for getting mad. I applaud you for it, and for getting away with it. I agree with what you said." Wanda said, thinking back to when they gave her the same rules, and the anger she felt then, but it had been overcome with grief at the time of the loss of her brother.

Not expecting that response, Sienna replied, "oh, thanks, I guess."

"Just don't get too used to getting away with everything." Said Wanda. "That may have been your only free pass. But maybe if we stick together, we'll be able to keep each other out of trouble."

"I think I'm good, thanks. Last time I trusted someone to help keep me out of trouble, I was almost beat up." Sienna replied, thinking of Duke.

"I just wanted to be friends."

"Yeah, well I just want to live a free life. But it seems as though neither of us will be getting what we want." Sienna said, entering her room and closing her door.

SM

"Admittedly, that could have gone a lot better." Steve said as he cleaned up after dinner.

"Yeah it was a poor choice of words." Said Nat.

"Thanks." Steve said, not really appreciating the honesty.

"She's just going to have to get used to us." She added, putting the final dish on the drying rack.

Just then, a crying Wanda came into the kitchen, not answering a concerned Vision's questions.

"Just tell me what happened, Wanda." He pleaded with her. But she just wanted to hug Steve.

He opened his arms and let her stay there as long as she needed. When she finally pulled away, he held her at an arms length away and looked into her eyes. The rest of the group had come to investigate the situation, and were patiently waiting for Wanda to explain the tears.

"It's probably nothing." She said, feeling silly that she was crying because someone didn't want to be her friend. She was a superhero for crying out loud.

"Well why don't you let us decide for ourselves?"

"I talked to Sienna. Tried to tell her I understood what she was going through, and told her it we would make good friends. In no uncertain terms, she disagreed." Saying it out loud did make it seem silly, but it had stung.

"Okay, I think it's best if you don't talk to her for a little while." Said Steve, rubbing her arms a little in comfort.

"What are you going to do about her, Steve?" Said Sam. "She can't just keep getting away with all she's doing. Clint said she was disrespectful, you guys said it was an uneasy car ride, and now this."

"It's her first day here." Steve said, "and she's going through a lot of changes, so I'm letting slide stuff I wouldn't normally let slide. It's a big move for her, and she's got a lot of emotions about it."

In reality, he was just scared. He didn't want to be the first one to punish Sienna. She didn't know what was coming. He had been raised like that, as had most of the people around him, and they would have been accustomed to it by the age of 16, but if she hadn't really been punished like that, or much at all, really, he didn't want to be the one to introduce that to her. What if it made her hate him? His was the only name on the foster parent papers, despite the fact that they were living together with many other adults, and he didn't want her to not like him when she would grow to like everyone else.

"Is that wise, though? She's gotten away with a lot today." Said Clint, remembering her defiance in the hall.

"If you guys think another approach should be taken, by all means, go ahead. But I'm not doing anything today."

"Nope, you're the boss. You probably know what's best." Clint said quickly, not wanting to interfere in the Captain's plan.

SM

Sienna went to sleep early that night, worn out from all the drama, and awoke, unsurprisingly to her, just after four a.m.

Her throat hurt from a lack of liquids, and when quietly brushing her teeth didn't do anything, she dressed but kept her feet socked instead of wearing shoes, so she would make less noise on the floors.

Leaving her room, she spent a couple minutes looking for the kitchen, which she knew was close but still wasn't sure which hallway to use, and when she got there, she grabbed a water bottle.

Wanting to sit down, she looked for a place that wasn't too expensive looking, but found nothing. She wandered a bit, and saw that all the couches she saw looked like they each cost more than a year's worth of rent. She knew from previous foster homes that expensive couches were not for foster children, so she steered clear of those.

Finally deciding on a room with a few bookshelves and a window she could sit beside on the floor, Sienna walked over to a bookcase and examined her options. She settled on an old classic she loved when her parents were still alive, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and sat down beside the window to read by the light of the rising sun.

She had read through two thirds of it before anyone appeared in the room.

SM

Steve and the rest of the household woke up at 7, save Clint, who woke up at 6, Wanda, who woke up at 9 and Sienna, who was still in bed.

Those awake ate breakfast and began their training in the morning, slowly gaining more people until everyone was training, even Clint.

When the Avengers left the training room, it was 10:45, and they still hadn't heard anything from the new teen.

"Maybe it's a good thing." Tony said, as they all sat around the living room, sipping coffee and reading the news. "She's sleeping off the irritability and she'll be a nice human to talk to today."

Sam laughed. "Sleeping in is a part of a teenager's DNA. I suppose we'll just be lucky if she's up by noon."

"I get up before noon." Wanda pointed out, "and I'm still technically a teenager. There's still a 'teen' at the end of my age."

"Yeah but Cap here won't allow you to get up any later. He's being a softie with the new girl." Tony said, smirking at the look on Steve's face.

"I'm not a big softie I just never told her that she had to be up by a certain time yesterday. Our talk went so well I decided not to risk more."

Nat sighed. "I'm just going to go get her. Maybe she isn't asleep, but is just in her room. She wasn't too pleased with us yesterday, I wouldn't put it past her to steer clear of us and the only place she knows is her room."

She walked towards the room and listened intently at the door. She didn't hear snoring or anything to indicate that the girl was still asleep, or really anything at all. She knocked. No answer. She knocked again and said "Sienna, you awake?" When she got no answer again, she opened the door, and gasped at the sight.

The bedspread was rustled like it had been slept in, but there was no trace of a girl in the room. She checked the bathroom as it was open and once again saw no one. She did notice clothes hanging around in there, though, in various stages of dryness.

She knew from looking around that the girl hadn't run away. Or at least she hoped that was the case. Her stuff was still lightly scattered around, the picture of her parents still on her desk.

Nat walked quickly back to the living room and when she got a questioning brow from Steve as to why she was lacking a teenager, she quickly said, "she wasn't in her room. I think she may be lost in the building."

"Or perhaps she's investigating where I wouldn't let her go yesterday." Clint said, getting up, exasperated, and stalking quickly off to the gym.

Steve quickly had them divide up and search the house, "it's not an emergency yet. She may just be looking around, or she may have made her room look that way to throw us off her trail so she would have time to escape."

Tony was the first to jump towards the control room. "I'll check all our sensors for the past couple of hours to see if she's gone out there."

The search continued with no sign of her until Sam noticed the door to the library was open. He looked inside and was surprised to see Sienna sitting on the floor by the window peacefully reading Harry Potter.

"So Tink's too good for couches, then?" Sam said, approaching her. She jumped. She had been too immersed in the book to notice that someone had come in.

"Not typically allowed on expensive couches." Sienna said with a mixture of sadness and resentfulness in her voice.  
"All we have is expensive couches." Replied Sam, rather shocked by the confession. Had she really not been allowed to sit on couches in foster homes? "Par for the course when you live in a billionaire's home. You can sit on them."

"Okay, well I'll move then."

"Actually, can you come with me, please? You're a flight risk, Tink, and everyone's convinced you ran away."

She understood their lack of confidence in her, seeing as she had run away numerous times in the past few years, but was still hurt by it.

She followed Sam into the living room and was bombarded with questions.

"Where were you?"

"Were you lost?"

"What were you doing?"

"I found her in the library, reading." Sam said, answering the questions for her.

"I'm not a toddler. You didn't 'find' me. I was just there. I wasn't lost." Sienna snapped.

"Why didn't you stay in your room? We thought you ran away."

"I woke up thirsty so I found my way to the kitchen and then found myself some books and a place to read. No big deal."

"Oh, alright. Sorry for doubting you." Steve said, sincerely. "Do you want some breakfast?"

"Do you have granola bars? I'm not terribly hungry."

"Sure. I'll get you one and that can hold you off until lunch."

"No, if we're having lunch soon, I won't have the granola bar."

"Well, you haven't had breakfast yet, right?"

"It's the most important meal of the day!" Tony piped in over his newspaper. He had picked it up when he hadn't seen her on the screens, figuring someone would find her soon.

"You said I only need to eat meals twice a day." Sienna pointed out. "I'm not used to eating that much, so I can't eat now and in a couple hours."

Steve debated if he would make her eat anyways, then decided he would just give her something rich in nutrients for lunch.

"Is it okay if I shower?" Sienna asked, changing the subject turning to Ton,y nervous of the answer. She loved showers, but foster homes, group homes, and juvi weren't very lenient on them, and limited showers to a couple days a week.

She had looked at Tony since she knew he was the owner of the place, and replied, "uh, yeah. Of course."

Tony had been taken aback by the question. Everyone here showered whenever they pleased. And sometimes a couple times a day depending on how hard they trained. Of course, he didn't know that she hadn't been allowed to shower all that often the past couple of years.

"Thanks." Everyone had been taken aback by this. She had been so hostile about everything, but was not so when talking about basic things that they took for granted.

"Do you need me to show you to your room?" Wanda asked hopefully.

"I'm fine." Sienna retorted, walking to her room, having lost the kind voice she had had briefly.

When Sienna disappeared down the hallway, and Tony was sure he wouldn't be able to hear her anymore, he said, "well her mood changes in a flash. One second she's asking nicely to shower, the next, she's rudely answering questions."

Steve looked confused. "I don't know what I'm going to do about that. I suppose we'll have to figure it out."

SM

Over the next week, Sienna kept pushing her limits. She was almost always rude or sullen, and only spoke to them if she had to. She stayed in her room or in the library most of the day, not even taking the chance to go out and get groceries with Nat and Clint when they asked if she wanted to.

She had left everyone in a bad mood, especially Wanda, who had really thought her and Sienna would be best friends. But it turned out that the more she tried to interact with her, the more the girl would push her away.

One day, after leaving straight from dinner to go read in her room, Pepper piped up.

"Steve, I know you're prime disciplinarian, and the rest of us can also have a hand, but you need to put a stop to this. We can't live this way anymore." She had noticed a change in Tony's sarcastic remarks, they weren't always in jest anymore, and that in itself was jarring to her.

Steve sighed, and ran his hands down his face, pressing on his eyes a bit, trying to clear his mind. "I know I do. At this point, she's broken the be respectful rule every day this week at least. That's really it, but she's pushed us all to our breaking points. And I also have to say, I'm sorry Wanda."

"What? It's okay." She replied. Thinking he was talking about the fact that Sienna wouldn't talk to her really, as she had been the one who had wanted her to come so badly. She felt bad for almost wishing that she hadn't wanted that so badly after all. "It wasn't a guarantee that we would get along. I just had thought maybe she would since we're in similar situations."

"No, well, I'm sorry for that too, but that's not what I meant by I'm sorry." Steve said, looking at her sincerely. "I'm sorry I haven't done anything about it. Had this been you, I would have taken you in hand after that first warning a week ago. And I'm sorry I'm not treating her the same way."

"Why aren't you?" Nat asked, asking what had been on everyone's mind the entire week. They all knew that Steve was the one who took care of these kinds of things, unless he wasn't the one in charge at the time, or unless it was specifically against another person, and weren't sure if they should step in without his leadership or say.

"Truthfully?" Steve asked rhetorically. He knew why, and he had been struggling with it for a week now. "It's because she's never really even been punished before. Well, not really by her parents. She said she had limited experience with them as she was always a 'good kid' and I don't know if her foster homes have been abusive or not. I know some of them are, and I want to make sure that she knows it's not what that is. But, if that's all she's experienced, she could think that a spanking is abusive, too."

"But it isn't, Steve, and you show that, everyone shows that, after it's over. Sure, it hurts when it's happening and it hurts to sit afterwards for a bit, but I know it isn't abuse because of how you all react not three seconds after the final swat has been swung. You're kind, you're loving, you make me feel safe..." Wanda was blushing at this point but she felt she needed to say all this.

"I know it's not abusive. But I just wish it wasn't me who has to be the one to introduce this to her. I want her to like us, to want to be with us, and not be scared of us. Anything can happen after a spanking..." He sighed again. He found that his reasoning was getting sillier, but it still seemed valid. He put the butt of his hands on his eyes and pressed once more. "I just wish she knew what to expect."

"I never know what to expect, really." Said Wanda. "And I never have. You expect it to hurt, and you expect there to be a reason behind it, but you never expect to feel the way you do afterwards. I know when I've done something wrong and that I can count on a spanking, and I know it's going to hurt, but that doesn't prepare you for the first hit, and every one after that. But it also doesn't prepare you for what you feel afterwards. I mean, you assume you're going to feel it, but that much love, respect, peace, it's hard to explain. Now, I'm not encouraging you to spank her or anything. In fact, we can skip that whole punishment if you would like in the future, but I don't want you to feel guilty about doing it, if you choose to go that route."

"Do you see how good your behavior is after a spanking, though?" Asked Tony. "It's bliss around here for at least a day." He teased, and she threw a pillow at him with her telekinesis.

This was quite embarrassing for her, because she was basically the only one to receive spankings, but talking openly with the Avengers hadn't ever been a problem for her.

"I agree, Tony. We can't cut them out as punishments." Said Steve, giving her a mix of a meaningful look and a teasing one.

"My butt wanted me to at least try." Said Wanda.

"Your butt should remind your mind sometimes of the consequences." Steve said, teasing again.

Pepper spoke up, again. "Steve, if you can't do it, for whatever reason, I can." She had never been a fan of the idea of corporal punishments, but after seeing it happen, and the effects it had, she couldn't say it was all bad. Even so, everyone was shocked at this declaration. "I have come to terms with it, and honestly, even without this conversation, I would probably have done something in the next couple of days, anyways."

"Wow. Never expected that of you, Mrs. Stark." Tony said. "It's kind of hot."

"Okay let's get back on track here." Clint said, cutting off whatever else Tony was going to say.

"I know she's been breaking rules all week," said Wanda, now feeling guilty, "but it would be embarrassing having everyone talk openly about my punishment."

"I see your point, Wanda." Said Steve, "but this has been against all of us. Whoever administers the punishment will decide for themselves how it will happen, and it will stay between Sienna and that person, but it's fair to bring it up in a group setting because of the fact that it's been against us all."

"Okay, but she hasn't gotten any real warning all week. She's kept pushing buttons, but no one has done anything. She doesn't know it's coming." Wanda said, still sticking up for Sienna. Suddenly, she felt horrible about bringing it up.

"Wanda, I did give her a warning, a week ago. And besides, you were almost all for it not five minutes ago."

"Well, sure, but you have to give some notice. I'd feel bombarded if I had been acting a certain way for a long time and then all of a sudden people come up to say it isn't okay and punish me for it."

"Okay, let's compromise. Pepper and I will go talk to her together, and if she cooperates, she'll only get a warning and maybe have the library put off limits for a few days. If not, we'll figure it out then."

Wanda wanted to argue as the two of them got up, but Vision held her back and murmured something in her ear that made her nod.

SM

Sienna was feeling kind of lonely. She knew she wanted space, and the freedom to do stuff alone, and she did make sure she got it, but she was missing human interaction.

This group wasn't horrible. They fed her, let her shower every day, and didn't badger her to spend time with them if she didn't want to. They also let her read their books, which she was thankful for. She found peace in books.

But also, when she was left alone, she realized even more, that she only needed herself to be alright. She could make food, she had provided a place for herself to sleep, sure, she didn't have as many books, but she had some, and a radio she could listen to. She didn't need badgering from these people. She didn't need to be reminded that she had to take her vitamins, or to eat regularly. Back at her place, she was able to eat whenever, and however many times a day she wanted. She pointed this out to Clint when he made her come join them for dinner once, but he said that that was what made her low in almost all essential nutrients, and why she was so skinny. It wasn't that she didn't want to eat, it was that she didn't feel hungry all the time. So, on her own, she'd be okay with one meal a day, and a peck or two of other food when she was getting hungry. She always tried to eat two meals a day, but it wasn't always guaranteed, and her body seemed to be okay with that.

So, the more often she had to herself, the more bitter she was about being where she was, which would make her lash out at anyone who tried to approach her, which would give her more time to stew and be bitter. It was a never ending cycle.

Well, it would end when she was 18. She would be out of here at 12:00 am on her birthday and she wouldn't come back.

She was stewing in her thoughts while looking at the page of her book when a knock sounded on the door.

"What? I already ate dinner." She said, calling out. There really was no other reason for her to be bothered. They had stopped trying a couple days ago.

Steve opened the door and he and Pepper walked in. "Can we talk?" He asked.

She knew that sentence. They were sending her back. Wow. Just over a week. That had to be some kind of "return the foster kid" record. "Sure, I'll pack my stuff."

"What? Why would you need to pack your stuff?" Pepper asked, thrown off.

"Because 'can we talk?' In a foster home means you don't want the kid anymore, and you're sending me back. I know you haven't been at this very long, but I guess it's just second nature."

"Send you back? No! We aren't sending you anywhere, we want to talk about you." Pepper said, sitting down on her bed. Steve pulled her desk chair over and sat in it while motioning to Sienna to sit by Pepper on the end of the bed.

"We want to talk about your behavior as of late." Steve said.

"My behavior? I basically stay out of your way!" Sienna was beginning to feel angrier and angrier.

"Well yes, we never see you. That's one of the issues. We'd like to get to know you better." Pepper said,

"And when we do see you, you're rude, curt, or disrespectful. I remember giving you a warning about that before. Consider this your last one before more extreme measures will be taken." Steve said, trying to calm her down with his tone, though he was giving unfortunate news.

"More extreme measures? What, like a spanking? Isn't that child abuse?" Sienna replied rudely, remembering what he said on the drive back from juvi.

"If administered correctly and out of love, with no marks lasting more than a couple of days at most, depending on the severity, no. It isn't abuse." Steve said.

"I used to have friends who were spanked when we were children. But I haven't heard of it in a long time, isn't it a child's punishment?" Sienna asked.

"No, it's a very effective one on anyone who misbehaves, including, but not limited to, teenagers." He replied.

"Look, for the past week you have been near intolerable, and we will not allow this to continue. Like it or not, we aren't giving up on you, and you're going to be with us at least until you turn 18." Pepper said, much in the same tone in which she spoke to Tony in the beginning, with undeniable authority. Although, he had had other motivations to comply. "We just want to know you, talk to you, not feel like we're on eggshells all the time. We also want you to have a good time here. Build up our trust, go outside, enjoy all that life has to offer a young person."

Sienna bristled. "I had all that before you brought me in." She turned to Steve on the 'you'. "My life was full enough. Then you took everything away from me."

"You weren't nourished nearly as much as you should have been and you were under constant threat of going to jail. Surely we're better than that." Steve said. "And drop the attitude. I've warned you once already, don't push me. We only came in here to talk."

"By the way you two always do these things together, you'd think the two of you were married, not Tony and Pepper. This feels very much like what I've read parents do in stories."

"Pepper doesn't usually involve herself in the punishments, but she was going to take this into her own hands soon if I didn't, but we agreed to talk about it together first."

"Lucky me."

"You are lucky. Wanda would have been punished long ago."

"I'm not Wanda! Stop comparing me to her."

Steve was getting very frustrated, very quickly. A couple more retorts from Sienna, and he would be pulling her over his lap quicker than she could blink.

"Young lady you will not be raising your voice with me any longer. You aren't Wanda, but you two will be treated equally and in fairness."

"Steve." Pepper said, getting up, and motioning for him to follow her to the farthest corner of Sienna's room. "You stay there." She said to the girl, who huffed but didn't move as requested.

"Do you want me to do this? Or do you want to?" Pepper asked, getting right to the point. "We've warned her, and we've been very patient. It's time. I understand your trepidation, she's never been spanked before, and maybe even you don't want to do it because you're a guy and she's a little girl and you don't know her history with foster fathers. I'm good with whatever you decide."

"I hadn't even thought of that, but thanks for adding another thing on my list of worries." Steve said, looking back to the girl on the bed. Or at least where she had been.

Only, she wasn't there. The door to the room was open and the bedroom was empty.

"Okay, that's it. I don't care who does it first but it's happening today." Steve said, walking towards the door. He looked left towards the most commonly used rooms, then looked right. He had just seen an ankle disappear. "Sienna get back here or you'll be making it worse for yourself."

He heard her take off running, so he did too.

She found out quickly that it wasn't smart to run away from a supersoldier, as he had rounded the corner and caught up with the girl in under 15 seconds. He picked her up kicking and screaming, and threw her over his shoulder, holding her legs while she thrashed and tried in vain to get away. He gave her a hearty five swats, which almost nearly completely calmed her down.

They arrived back in the room and he closed the door.

"I've got this, Steve." Pepper said.

"Okay." Steve said, knowing he was too angry to properly deal with Sienna now, and leaving her in a corner where she could run away again while he calmed down didn't seem like the best option. "I'll be out with the others."

He left swiftly, leaving Pepper and Sienna standing in the middle of the room.

"Let's try this again. Sit." Pepper said, motioning to the chair Steve had been sitting in. Sienna sat, subdued by the swats, and noticing that it hurt a little, though it was mostly just little tingly needles, to sit. Not unbearable by any means.

"You cannot just run away whenever something doesn't go your way. You won't get away, especially from Steve, the fastest guy here, and you'll find yourself in more trouble than before. So now, I'm going to punish you, but first I'd like you to tell me what you did wrong."

Sienna looked curiously at her, as if she had two heads. Her subdued tone beginning to leave her. "You just said it was because I ran away."

"That got you extra, but it isn't the main reason. Can you think of anything else?"

"Whatever it was you were warning me about?"

"Were you not listening?" Pepper asked angrily.

"I wasn't retaining much, no."

"Fine. I'll tell you. Because you're rude, disrespectful and intolerable. We will not let attitude like this slide. You have been horrible to us for the past week and it has to stop. Get up."

Sienna did as she was asked. Pepper sat down on Sienna's bed, grabbed the girl's wrist, and pulled her over her lap.

"We will not tolerate this kind of attitude here. It will be dropped immediately or you can rest assured you will be over someone's lap more often than anyone would prefer." Pepper said, and began spanking the teenager.

Having not been in this position before, and also as Pepper's legs were so small, which provided no room for comfort, laying over her knees was uncomfortable. The part of her torso that wasn't laying over Pepper was on the mattress, though, and that was more comfortable.

But then the first swat landed, and she realized that all of her complaints about comfort were in vain. Her butt stung, and it had been the only swat from Pepper so far. It wasn't as hard as Steve's, but as the second, third, fourth and fifth swats came, she realized it wouldn't matter. Quantity was quickly taking over in terms of sting.

Pepper had a rhythm she noticed, spanking one jean clad cheek, and then the other. She went from the top of her butt, to the bottom, then back up again.

The pain was building in her rear but she refused to cry. She was so frustrated by the position, and the circumstances, that she told herself she wouldn't break down.

She could handle herself until Pepper had finished, no matter how painful it got.

By the twentieth swat, Sienna realized that the pain was quickly going to become harder to ignore, and her eyes started to water. She was still going to be able to handle it, though.

The thirtieth swat came, as did her first silent tear. She thrashed, trying to get out of Pepper's grip, but she had an iron like hold on her. She swung her hand back to block the next strike. "Okay! Okay! I get it! I'll be nicer! And I won't run away." Pepper grabbed her hand, and held it at the small of her back.

Pepper wasn't sure if she would feel comfortable doing it when beginning, but she knew she really needed to get through to the girl, as she didn't believe she had so far, so she pulled down her jeans, which made Sienna gasp.

"Sienna, it would have been over already had you not run away, but this will discourage that from ever happening again."

The girl finally made a sound that proved to Pepper that she was crying, and had to strengthen her resolve to get to the final breakdown that she knew was coming.  
She kept spanking and Sienna gasped. Her jeans had provided quite a bit of protection that her underwear simply did not. It was beginning to hurt quite a lot more.  
Pepper was beginning to worry she wouldn't break down and finally truly show she understood the point, as she had realized she had given over 45 swats to the girl's behind, with just little gasps here and there, when the girl started begging.

Guilt had begun to wash over her, and sadness, and her frustration with the system, and her relief of being wanted, and she called out, "please! Please! I get it now! Stop! Please stop!" But the smacks kept coming, now falling lower than the cover of her underwear, to the underside of her butt.

She finally broke down. She stopped begging as it wouldn't be understandable and she broke down in sobs.

Pepper knew it was over as soon as she hit the first sit spot, she had known from the begging that she had nearly gotten where she had wanted to be, and then she was there.

Sienna cried over her lap for a couple of minutes, letting Pepper rub her back soothingly, then she started to get up.

She was hiccuping from tears, but stood before Pepper as best she could. Pepper stood up and took her into her arms, hugging her. Both women were now crying. Pepper because that had been as emotionally hard on her as it had been for Sienna, and Sienna because her butt was on fire, her guilt had overcome her, and her relief of finally feeling like someone cared enough to do something since her parents died.

The women stayed like that for quite a while, until Sienna's sobs calmed down, and her tears had subsided significantly.

"I'm sorry." Sienna said, meaning every word. "I'm so sorry. I'll do better."

"Oh honey," said Pepper, "I know you will. And don't worry about not always doing the right thing. Everyone here just wants to help you. And they will. You aren't going anywhere."

Sienna felt a fresh wave of tears come on, but didn't feel like she could cry anymore. She assumed she was cried out. She suddenly yawned and felt as if she had never before felt as tired and emotionally stable as she did now.

"Come on, let's get you into bed. Just sleep in your t-shirt and underwear tonight. You aren't going to want to move them for a while." Pepper said. She pulled back the sheets and helped Sienna in.

Luckily for Sienna, she almost always slept on her stomach, so she had no problems with her butt hitting the mattress. No matter how soft it was, it would hurt significantly after that spanking.

Pepper sat beside her on the bed and kept rubbing her back even after she fell asleep. It wasn't until Sienna had been asleep for a good five minutes that she decided to leave the room and head out to see Tony and the others.

They were all sitting anxiously on the couches.

Pepper came in and said, "I hope this is the start of a much better time for all of us. Her attitude may not improve at once, but I think she understands where we're coming from now, and will try to be more pleasant. But I would appreciate it if I don't have to do that again for quite a long time."

Tony came over and pulled her into a hug, and it was all she could do to prevent herself from breaking down completely in front of everyone.

"Isn't the point of a spanking to make sure she doesn't do what she did wrong ever again?" Asked Vision. "Shouldn't her attitude change completely?"

Sam gave a small laugh. "I don't think you understand teenagers, there, Vision. Spankings are more of a temporary deterrent, not a permanent one."

"Well, it depends on the situation." Said Wanda. "When I was younger, I did something I don't feel like repeating and my dad spanked me for it. Wasn't able to sit properly for a week. But, I haven't repeated that same offense again. Attitude problems are a much harder fix."

"Oh, I see."

"Where is she?" Wanda asked, changing the subject and looking around Pepper. "Is she okay? Does she need company right now?"

"Other than having a sore behind, and hopefully a new attitude, she's fine. Exhausted, though. She fell asleep not long after it was over."

Wanda nodded, knowing how tired she usually was after a sound spanking. She guessed it was from all the crying and how fast your brain goes in that position. You go into overdrive and then crash.

"I think I'm going to go to bed. Goodnight." Said Pepper, grabbing Tony's hand and leading him away to their room with a chorus of "goodnights" following their departure.

Eventually, everyone headed off to sleep, but before he went to his own room, Steve went to check on Sienna. He opened the door just enough to peek in, and saw the girl, sleeping there, covered in her comforter, sleeping soundly. Her breathing was normal, and it was too dark to see how her face looked, but she sounded peaceful. He only hoped it would stay that way, even for a little while.

 **Sorry for the long wait! The day after I posted last, I began reading Harry Potter for the first time, and I've almost finished the 7th one now. To make up for it, I decided to make an extra long chapter, and not make you wait for the spanking until the next one, like my original plan was, since I had had a couple ideas on where to leave it.**

 **I also wanted to give a couple chances for Sienna (or Wanda) to be spanked, but for it not to happen, to keep you guys guessing as to when it was going to come, but also to make it seem more natural. Spanking her on the first day didn't make much sense to me.**

 **Please review and tell me what you think! This was my first ever time writing a spanking scene, so if it was rough (I know it was) I'll get better at it! And also I have a couple ideas of where this story will go, but if ever you have suggestions for something you'd like to see happen, I can try to incorporate it eventually in later chapters :) Or, if it fits, in the coming ones.**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

Sienna awoke the next day again at 4 a.m. Despite how tired she had been the night before, her body clock just wouldn't let her sleep past 4. That one time in jail had been an anomaly.

She rolled over onto her back, but regretted it immediately.

"Ow!" She hissed, flipping back over. She remembered now why she had been so tired the night before.

She got into a kneeling position and half crawled off the bed, so she could walk into her bathroom to examine the damage done to her bottom.

Pulling down her underwear, she saw that the damage wasn't as bad as it felt when pressing on it. It was just a light pink, not bruised or anything.

She wondered at this phenomenon for a while before realizing it probably wouldn't do much to over think it.

She slipped her comfiest pants on, an old pair of track pants, and a new t-shirt, leaving the old one in the bathroom to wash when she took a shower when everyone else woke up.

Putting on socks was harder, as she didn't want to sit to do it, but eventually she got them on, and walked to the kitchen, where she grabbed a water bottle and an apple from the fridge.

She didn't know where the hunger came from, she wasn't typically hungry in the mornings, but the pang was there, so she decided to satiate it.

Then, like every other day, she walked to the library.

She decided to grab a completely different book than the genre she had been reading, a romance, one small enough to fit in one hand so she could lay on her stomach to read, The Fault in Our Stars.

She was about three chapters into it when she wondered why any of them had it at all, as it was definitely not something she thought any of them would enjoy reading. It was much too young for what she guessed they probably liked.

For her, though, it did the trick. She just wanted to read, and she couldn't do much but lay on her stomach on the couch, so the smaller book was easier to hold suspended beside her head.

SM

Clint awoke at 6, and before he went to make himself a pot of coffee, he went to check on Sienna. He had only come to the Avengers building to help out with the beginning of the fostering process, and to help all the others, who didn't have any experience raising a child. He felt some kind of responsibility for her, now, that he wasn't expecting, and though he knew that Pepper hadn't been too hard on the girl yesterday, he still worried about her emotional state this morning.

When he opened her door, however, he was surprised to find that she wasn't in her bed. He looked towards her bathroom to find that she wasn't in there, either.

Panic began to rise in him. She was usually the one out of all of them who slept in the longest, only ever emerging while they were training. Clint never saw her, because he would often sit and watch the training, not missing it, but intrigued as to how the new guys settled in.

Would she have run away? Would she seriously contemplate that after yesterday? Steve had come out fuming from the talk with Sienna, and said that he had to chase after her when she ran away because she was in trouble.

Before he woke the others, Clint decided to check the one other place in the home she could be; the library.

Walking briskly, but quietly, so as not to wake the others, he strode purposefully towards the library, breathing a sigh of relief before he walked in, as he saw socked feet poking up above the back of the couch.

He made sure to make small noises as he walked into the room so as to not scare the girl, but as she was not accustomed to people this early in the morning, she was frightened anyways.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. Just saw your bedroom empty and I assumed..." Clint began, not liking that he had immediately resorted to not trusting her when he couldn't find her.

"Ran away?" She asked, finishing his sentence for him. But she half laughed. "I think that that would be a bad idea for my recovery."

It was taking everything in her to be nice and polite. She had gotten used to the opposite over the past week, and she hadn't really interacted with adults much in juvi or before, on her own.

But this one looked rather harmless. "Do you want to join me?" She asked, motioning for the chair that sat by the end of the couch, so she wouldn't have to sit up or move too much to look at him.

"Sure." Clint said, surprised by the pleasantry. He hadn't known spankings for attitude to work as fast and as miraculously as it seemed to in her case. "So... how are you?"

They both seemed like they were walking on ice at first, but as their conversation went on for the next thirty minutes with them asking the basic get-to-know-you-questions, they both seemed to get on better terms with each other.

"Alright. I need coffee. You up for continuing this conversation in the kitchen?"

Sienna desperately wanted to say no, because as much as she agreed that Clint wasn't half bad, she really didn't want to sit on one of their stools in the kitchen.

However, she shocked herself, and said, "okay."

They talked a bit more as they went out to the kitchen, still talking about sports teams and kids shows, with Sienna asking what was still on, and seeing if she had seen any of the shows his kids were into.

When he had gotten his coffee, he motioned for her to sit at the dining room table to continue their conversation.

"Oh, um, no thanks. I'll stand." She said, subconsciously rubbing her butt.

Clint noticed this and suppressed a laugh.

"It's okay, the seats are really well padded. And you won't be able to lie down for the rest of the day, or at mealtimes. Might as well get used to it before anyone else wakes up."

She took this to be a good point, so she tentatively took a seat across from him. It still wasn't as comfortable as it had been just the day before at dinner, but once she squirmed a bit, she seemed to be able to get used to it.

"So, I never asked. Why are you up so early? Don't you usually sleep in?"

Sienna thought about lying to him, but figured it would be alright to tell him. "Actually, I-" but she was cut off by Steve entering the room.

"Morning, Clint." Steve said, not yet noticing Sienna. When he stepped a bit further into the room, however, he noticed her sitting on a chair. She looked down right away. "And good morning, Sienna. Is everything alright?"

"She was just about to tell me why she's up so early." Clint said, and Steve nodded before getting himself a cup of coffee and sitting down by Clint.

"Are you alright?" Steve asked again, worried.

She looked at him and saw a worried stare. No doubt he wondered if perhaps something had happened yesterday, however he had no idea what would make her wake up earlier. Typically, Wanda would sleep in after she'd been punished.

"Um, yeah." She said, looking at her lap before looking back up at Clint and Steve. "I actually always get up this early. I guess you just don't typically look for me until after you train. Or whatever it is you do in the morning while I read."

"But what time is 'this early'?" Clint asked, "you were already reading when I came into the library this morning, and I have was up at 6."

"I wake up everyday at 4." She said, gauging their reactions. They were shocked.

"At 4? Why so early?" Steve asked, stupefied by this proclamation. "And we all thought you slept in!"

"My parents and I always woke at 4." Sienna said, remembering. "It was our family time before they went to work, and I to school. Then, in foster care, I was just used to it, and it was the only time I got to be alone all day. And then it just kind of happened to be my thing that I can't shake."

"Wow, well good for you, then, I guess." Steve said, bewildered at this information. He realized quickly that she probably shouldn't be awake and alone by herself like that.

"Don't tell me I should stay in bed." Sienna said, defiantly, forgetting her behind for a second before remembering. "Or getting someone to wake up with me. I like a couple hours alone in the morning."

"Alright. As long as you stay in the house at all times unless someone else is awake to give you permission to leave, I won't do anything about your wake up. We all have our things, and this is yours. But I guess this means you should be going to bed earlier…" Steve said, letting the brief attitude slide as it was dropped as quickly as it came on.

"I am used to about 4 and a half hours of sleep per night. It's how my body clock works, unless I'm absolutely exhausted. Me going to bed earlier won't do anything."

"Wait." Clint said, interjecting. Both of them looked towards him. "You haven't been eating until lunch, with us. If you wake up at 4, that's about 8 hours of you not eating."

"I'm not typically hungry right when I wake up, though this morning I did have an apple." This seemed to satisfy Clint for the time being. "And then I'm just so engrossed in whatever book I'm reading that I don't think to eat until you make me."

"Okay, well then, if you aren't hungry when you get up, now that we know you're awake, you're going to have to come have breakfast now. When we thought you were getting up only a couple hours before lunch time, it was fine to only have two meals a day, but, I'm going to insist on you having three from now on." Steve said. Sienna's heart sank, but knew it was best to keep quiet. She guessed that eventually, if she got used to having three meals a day, she would begin to have room for all of it.

"Also, I think I need to discuss something with you, Steve, about Sienna." Once again, they both looked at him. This time, in wonder.

"What is it?" Asked Steve, not knowing if they should keep Sienna here for it, but knowing that if Clint mentioned it in front of her, she could hear it.

"Ever since she's gotten here, all she's done is sit and read." Clint started, then looked at Sienna. "Which is fine, there are worse things for you to be doing, but we'd love you to do other things with us." And he turned back to Steve, "and she also needs to be getting exercise. Lying or sitting on a couch all day is not enough."

"You're right, Clint." Said Steve, turning then to Sienna. "And you also haven't had fresh air in about a week. How about this afternoon, or evening, we go out, and get you some more clothes. I've noticed that you keep wearing variations of the same few outfits, and you need more than that, especially if you're going to be doing exercises and sweating more."

"Alright." Sienna said. She didn't really need more clothes, and she didn't want them to spend money on her. But she also didn't want to tell them where her secret apartment was, which had plenty of clothing for her, because that was still her hideaway, her safe space.

Just then, everyone else, including Wanda, who was also up early, came into the room.

"Two teenagers up before nine!" Clint exclaimed, "who would've thought?"

"Very funny." Wanda said, looking at Sienna. "I was worried about you."

Sienna felt everyone looking at her, and knew, especially this close to Steve and Pepper, that she had to stay civil, polite even, despite her annoyance at the teen, which she didn't understand.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said, trying to reassure the girl. "Don't worry about me." She gave her a half smile, but that seemed to do the trick. Wanda beamed at her, and everyone else looked rather relieved.

They set to work making breakfast, and when it was served, despite Sienna's protests that she wasn't hungry, they all sat around the table to eat, though with the TV on watching the morning news.

When no one else was listening or watching, Wanda, who noticed that Sienna really did seem to be having difficulty finishing her breakfast, as she had exclaimed she was full, subtly switched plates with the girl, giving her the empty one she had while she quickly finished off the eggs.

Sienna felt relieved at this. She had eaten all she could, but it wasn't everything, and she felt bad leaving wasted food, even though she had told them she wouldn't be able to eat it all.

She gave Wanda a smile in earnest this time, not just to appease the room, and Wanda smiled back.

SM

When the morning news show was over, Steve announced that they should all go and get ready to start training.

"Can I come?" Sienna asked, hoping to see what it was all about.

"No, you aren't training to become an Avenger. You will have a normal, regular person's life." Steve replied automatically, while she also just got a bunch of "no"s from a couple of the other adults.

Maybe later, then. Sienna thought, and spoke up again. "Alright, well I'll be reading."

She started off towards the library while everyone else went to their room, but Wanda pulled her along with her to her room.

"I don't know if I'm supposed to give you this, or even if I'm supposed to have it, but here." She said, handing Sienna a small bottle of lotion. "I don't know if you're still feeling the effects, but I find that sometimes this just takes the sting out a bit. I know the point is to feel the effects for a while, but this doesn't completely heal you, you should just be able to move a little better."

"Thanks," Sienna said, but realized she had been sitting all morning and felt okay. "I don't think I need it right now, but I'll come back to you if I ever do."

Wanda smiled at her, and Sienna smiled back. She had never had a foster sibling who had been so kind to her in such a small gesture. The foster system just left a bunch of bitter people wishing for better lives, not helping increase another's.

"I know you... didn't really want to, before." Wanda stuttered, "but do you think maybe we could do something later? Our stories are different, and so are our situations, but I think we could get along okay."

"Um, sure. I think I'm supposed to be going out today with Steve to get clothes, but maybe after? Or tomorrow? Or you can come today, I guess, I don't really ever go shopping with people so I don't know how that would work..." Sienna rambled.

"Yeah, I'll ask him if I can join you, today. I know you're used to shopping alone, but I would love to get out of the house. We barely get to leave the grounds."

"Okay. Well, I guess you should get ready for training, I'm going to go to the library." Sienna left to continue her book, and Wanda quickly got ready for training.

SM

Sienna was almost finished her book, she was now able to half sit on the couch with her legs up beside her, which made reading easier, when Clint came in again.

"I'm never going to finish this book with all these interruptions." She groaned.

"Hey, watch the attitude." Clint said, sitting down in the chair he had been in before. "I'm just coming to join you, and read, too."

"Oh, sorry." Sienna said, she hadn't meant to sound rude or anything. "I'm just really into it and we're hitting the climax."

"That's alright." Clint said, smiling at her, before picking up the book he brought in with him and opening it.

They passed the next half hour like that, with Sienna finishing her book and holding it against her, in book hangover mode, trying not to cry.

"Looks like it's about noon, now. They're probably going to be making lunch, soon. We should probably get out there." Clint said, looking at his watch.

"Can't. Emotionally ruined." Sienna said. She had no idea why this book affected her the way it did, but she couldn't bare to leave it be. She needed a couple more minutes to take it in.

"Alrighty then." Clint said, not knowing what was so enthralling, but not doubting her. Someone would come get her when lunch actually was ready.

He walked back into the kitchen and was surprised to find Steve there back in his regular clothes, with his glasses and hat perched on the edge of the counter.

"Going undercover?" Clint asked, and pointed to the items on the counter.

"Sienna, Wanda and I are going to a mall today. Blending in is key to not getting spotted and having to leave early."

Clint nodded.

Wanda came in sporting a hat, with her hair in a ponytail through the back, a band t-shirt borrowed from Tony, and black jeans on. "Do I need glasses?"

"I think you're fine." Steve said, not looking up from what felt like the millionth sandwich he was making. Lunch really should be a "make your own" kind of deal.

"Okay!" Wanda said excitedly, sitting on a barstool, and spinning around in it.

"You obviously didn't blow off enough steam in training today." Tony said, coming in.

"I'm just excited to be doing something with someone my own age today. And Steve." She said, still spinning.

"Speaking of the one your age. Can you please go get her? Lunch is ready." Steve asked, before handing all the people in the room a plate.

"Perfect, turkey." Sam said, coming in and taking a bite. "My favourite bird."

SM

Wanda walked into the library and found Sienna hugging a book with her eyes closed on the couch.

"Are you okay?" Wanda asked, and Sienna opened her eyes.

"Yeah, just letting it sink in. But I guess there's only so much time that that can last. Lunch ready?"

"Yep. But first, what book is that? If it's so good, maybe I'll read it later." Wanda asked, searching for something to have in common with Sienna.

"The Fault in Our Stars." Sienna replied. "Now we should go before I get accused of trying to skip a meal."

"That's probably a good idea." Wanda said, but then stopped and looked at Sienna. "Have you gained weight?"

Sienna was taken aback by this, and she wasn't sure if she liked it or not. Was that saying she was putting on pounds in places she shouldn't be?

"I don't know." Sienna said curtly, trying to walk away. Wanda grabbed her.

"Sorry. That came out wrong. I mean, you look good. More... healthy, now." Wanda tried to fix her mistake, which she had realized as soon as she said it. "Let's go quickly check in the training room before we go to the dining room."

Sienna really didn't want to go weigh herself, but she found protesting and pleading to just go eat wouldn't do any good, plus, at least she'd see the training room this way.

"Okay, it's just to the left, over here." Wanda said as they entered the room.

It was a large room, with some traditional exercise machines, a very large mat, and a couple things she didn't recognize. But it was so much bigger than Sienna had been expecting.

"I wonder why they don't just let me watch." Sienna said, turning to Wanda. "There's a spot up there, I could see how you guys fight, and give you an eagle eye perspective."

"Because we don't want you getting any ideas." Sam said, entering the room, his arms folded over his chest. "I thought Steve or Clint told you we didn't want you in this room."

Wanda stepped in, and stood between Sam and Sienna. "We were just checking if she's gained any weight, so you guys can stop freaking out over her." Wanda said, defensively.

"Look, you two are on thin ice just being in here, don't push it with the attitude."

"But I'm allowed in here!" Wanda said, angrily.

"You know she isn't." Sam said, pointing to Sienna.

"Why are you even here, anyways?"

"Steve asked me to go find you, since I had finished lunch first. I was heading towards the library but I heard the training room door close."

"Fine, we're leaving." Wanda said, and turned to look over her shoulder, "we can do this another time."

"It's okay." Sienna said, not particularly wanting everyone to know how much she did or didn't weigh.

They both walked up to Sam, with Wanda getting there first. He grabbed her arm and twisted her so he could land five hearty swats to her backside before letting her go. He wasn't sure what possessed him to do it, he was rarely the disciplinarian, but he saw these two girls as his younger siblings, and knew he couldn't let them get away with things. Also, this way, if he dealt with it, he wouldn't have to tell Steve, Pepper, as she had dealt with Sienna the day before, or even Tony, who was strangely more of a disciplinarian than one would expect.

Sienna knew she was next, but really didn't want the swats. Wanda tried to come to her aid. "It was my idea! She didn't have anything to do with this."

"You didn't put a gun up to her head," Sam retorted, "and unless you altered her mind, she could've turned away at any point. She knows the rules."

By this point, she had reached him and turned away from him, to protect herself, and was about to walk past him when he grabbed her arm. "Oh no you don't." He said, and gave her also five hearty swats.

Both girls were rubbing the sting out until they reached the dining room. Wanda dropped her hand first, and Sienna figured that would be a good example to follow. No one else needed to know.

They sat down, but Sienna was surprised that she didn't even feel the tingly feeling she felt yesterday when Steve had done it. She guessed rubbing it out really did work.

SM

When they got to the mall, Steve informed Wanda that she had a $250 limit. "I don't think you'll spend it all, but that's what I have for you, today. Don't spend it all in one place though, or if you don't need to. Sienna, you get more, because we're getting you an entirely new wardrobe."

"I'll need more than $250 to get a new wardrobe?" Sienna asked, incredulous.

They both looked at her like the she had two heads from underneath their disguises.

"Even I knew that when I came here. And we had a completely different monetary system!" Wanda exclaimed.

Steve hushed her. "Where do you usually shop for clothes?"

"Walmart, Target or thrift stores."

"Would you feel more comfortable if we went to one of those places?"

"You drove all the way out here, I don't want you to have wasted gas. Does this place have stuff similar to a department or thrift store?"

Wanda got excited. "Well, the good thing about thrift stores is that the clothes come from everywhere, so we have lots of options to choose from!"

She grabbed Sienna's hand and brought her to the nearest store, proceeding to drag her around it asking if she liked anything she saw.

When she said she didn't, the trio went to the next clothing store.

This continued for about an hour until they were finally at the last of their options for the mall. Walking into it, though, Sienna saw lots of things she did actually like.

Wanda and Steve were relieved when she walked up to a pile of shirts, and grabbed a couple that she liked that were in her size.

"I prefer to wear cool colours. I find warm colours stand out too much." She explained, picking up a couple blue shirts to try on, a couple styles of black shirts, and two pairs of jeans; blue and black.

Once she saw what Sienna was picking out, Wanda picked out many other shirts in similar styles, mainly bands she didn't really know, and solid colours. She also picked some patterns she thought would look good on Sienna, in the colours she liked but not really the style she wore. She could expand her horizons. She also grabbed some socks and jeans for the girl, a couple pairs of shorts, as well as some workout gear for the two of them.

She brought her load over to the other two, who were both just as clueless as the other was as to how to ask for a dressing room.

"It's fine." Sienna said, as Steve mentioned that he would go look for a worker, "I don't really need to try this stuff on. I know my size and my style. It should be fine."

Sienna was starting to get tired, and she really didn't want to stay in the mall that much longer. Her spirits dropped when Wanda came up to them.

"You're going to have to try these on, I was just guessing your size for some of these." Wanda said.

"Can I just look through them? I'll hold them up and see if they'll fit in all the right places. Things don't need to fit exactly. And baggy isn't the end of the world, it's more comfortable that way."

"I would prefer it if you tried them on, Sienna." Said Steve, "I just want to make sure things fit, and if they're baggy when they're not meant to be, Pepper or Clint or Tony or someone will complain that we're not dressing you properly."

"But I never try stuff on." Sienna said, starting to whine. "And I really don't want you spending this much money on me."

"Money isn't an issue for us, and we get paid a little bit for you. Consider that how much you get to spend. It'll cover everything you have here. Now you're trying stuff on or we aren't leaving. I will not be to blame for you wearing baggy clothes."

Seeing she was out of options, Sienna decided to just do as he said. She let him call over an attendant and let her into the room.

"You're only allowed 6 things in the rooms at once." Said the attendant, eyeing what Wanda had.

"Okay, you come out and show us what you're trying on, and we'll switch up the items as you're finished with them." Steve said, also eyeing the pile of clothes and wondering just how much longer they would have a happy teenager on their hands.

She was a relatively quick changer, and soon enough they had tried on half of everything that had been picked out.

"They're all fitting me the same." Sienna whined, refusing Wanda's outstretched hand containing another striped shirt. "Why do I have to keep trying them on?"

"We need to see if they'll look good on you! And a couple shirts have been different." Wanda said, patiently.

"Wanda's right. But lately we've seen which brands fit you the best, so if you don't want to try on these last few shirts, you don't have to. I know they're in your size." Steve said, trying to keep everyone happy. "I'm sure Wanda knew what she was doing when she picked them out, and they'll look good on you. Just try on one of the skirts, so we know, and the workout clothes."

Sienna took the items in Steve's outstretched hands, and sighed as she turned to go back into the dressing room.

She walked out wearing the skirt, but was very uncomfortable in it.

"No offence Wanda, but I am so not a skirt wearer. I don't like this at all."

"Well then we won't get the skirts." Steve said, taking the rest of the skirts from Wanda and putting them in the reject pile.

"But you would look so good in them! You look great in that one! Please just get one skirt."

"I don't want you guys to spend money on something I won't wear, though." Sienna explained, trying to keep her one friend from possibly turning on her. "Maybe eventually I'll wear a skirt, but I don't want to buy one today."

"Fine." Wanda said, crossing her arms and turning her head away from them, looking out towards the rest of the clothes.

Steve looked at her, and sighed. He knew she was about to have a mild tantrum. "Look, if you like the skirts, get a couple for yourself, and if Sienna fits into your clothes, and wants to borrow them, she can wear them then. Okay?"

Wanda sighed, but looked back at the two of them. "Fine. I'll try them on after she finishes."

Sienna turned back around and went into the dressing room, putting on the workout clothes. "They fit! Just like everything else I've tried on!"

"Come out and show us." Steve asked, patiently.

"I'm sick of being a model. They fit well enough."

"Well as the person who is going to be putting you through the paces, I would like to make sure you can move properly in them. Come out please." Steve said, adding the please only out of habit, but not really giving her an option.

She walked out sulkily. "Good enough? I'm not allowed in the training room, so why would you need to put me through the paces? Besides, this material feels like it could bend well. There."

Steve stood up, grabbed her arm, and pushed her down into the seat he was just sitting in. He then proceeded to scold the two teenagers. "I don't know what's gotten into you two. You were both so cooperative when we got here, even earlier this morning. Where did that go? If you two don't change your attitudes right now, you will be confined to your rooms for the rest of the day, and if you continue to push me, we will all be having an unpleasant conversation when we get home on top of that, alright?"

"Yes, Steve." Wanda said, looking at her hands.

"Yeah, alright." Sienna said.

"Okay. Sienna, change back into your regular clothes. Those are good enough for what you'll be doing. Also, hand Wanda a skirt, she can try it on in the next room over."

SM

Not ten minutes later, they were walking with their bags out of the store. Each of them bore an expression of relief to be out of the store once and for all, and Sienna also felt guilt over how much her items had cost. Steve said not to worry, though, and wouldn't take her money, no matter how hard she tried to make him.

They got back into the van and were heading home when Steve decided to do something to lift their spirits from the store.

"Let's go get ice cream. Today didn't end in total disaster and I think that that needs celebrating."

"I don't want you spending any more money on me." Sienna said to her hands, as she knew that Steve would have something to say about it, again.

They pulled into the parking lot, and Steve turned around to her. "I volunteered for this. I knew what I was getting into, and it really isn't all that much money. We have a lot of money. I, personally, am well off enough to treat the two of you to ice cream. So stop worrying."

"I can't just turn it off," Sienna said, and then clarified, when she saw Steve's bewildered face, "the worry. I can't just stop worrying because you tell me not to."

"But if I keep telling you not to, eventually, you'll realize that there is nothing to worry about, and then your brain will get it, and then you will get it. Small reminders until it's not needed anymore." Steve said, opening her door for her and letting her hop out.

At the ice cream store, they each ordered a single scoop of ice cream, and sat down to eat it at a table outside.

"I haven't had ice cream like this in years!" Steve said, licking his up eagerly. The girls laughed. He was acting younger than them.

"You haven't bought plenty of ice cream for the house?" Sienna asked, wondering, if they had all this money, why he wouldn't.

"It's better to be a treat. And this tastes like the ice cream I used to love as a child. You can't buy that in stores these days."

"Maybe you can make it." Sienna said, looking at him seriously. "I'm sure there are recipes somewhere, and I'm busy never, I could try. Maybe when I start school it could count as a cooking class."

"Good idea. Maybe we'll look into that," smiled Steve. She was talking about staying with them now for a while. It was a nice change.

SM

By the time supper rolled around, Sienna wasn't hungry. The ice cream had been too late in the day, and between having to have breakfast and lunch, as well as her morning apple, and her ice cream, she really didn't think she could eat any more food.

"Well eating ice cream isn't part of a well balanced diet." Said Tony when she tried to tell him she didn't want to eat. "Protein, meats, vegetables, everything we're eating, is. You don't have to have a lot, but you do have to have some things."

"But I really don't think I can eat anything at all!"

"Well, that's too bad. You have to take your vitamins, and it's not good for you to take them on an empty stomach. I won't give you a lot, but you will be eating something."

She was angry at this, but took the plate he gave her and sat down loudly.

"Hey, drop the attitude. I won't hesitate to send you to your room the rest of the night." Steve said, reminding her of their talk earlier that day.

She didn't say anything to him, but glared at her plate.

"Eat, Sienna." Steve said. "Take your vitamins, and finish at least half of what's on your plate."

Once again, Wanda felt pity on the girl, so when she didn't think the others were looking, Sienna would pretend to pick up a piece, drop it on the way to her mouth, and then Wanda would use her telekinesis to put it onto her plate, so she could eat it. Their system was practically fool proof. Or, it would have been, had it not been for Clint, who didn't get his Hawkeye alias by accident.

 **Mild cliffhanger! Hope you enjoyed the chapter :) Leave me a review if you feel so inclined, and let me know what you thought of the chapter and what you think should happen! Also- I'd like to make it clear that Sienna doesn't have an eating disorder. She's just not ever really hungry, hence why she was so malnourished. I had a friend once who was like that, and she was on every vitamin I could imagine, so I'm making this situation vaguely based on that.**

 **If you're starting school this week, or if you start soon/already started, good luck! I'm rooting for you :)**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

Clint had been watching them from the corner of his eye for the past couple of bites, before he realized that this wasn't just a one time thing, and Wanda was going to eat Sienna's entire meal for her.

He got up, grabbed Wanda's arm, and pulled her out of her chair. Everyone was looking at the three of them, now.

"Finish your meal, by yourself." Clint said to Sienna, pulling Wanda away. Vision looked distraught, as he knew what was going to happen just based on Clint's face, but knew it was never his place to step in, especially when he was pretty sure he knew what had happened, and that she deserved it. Sienna, however, didn't want to allow it.

"No!" She exclaimed, standing up. Sam quickly pulled her back down. "Clint she was just trying to be my friend!"

"A friend would encourage you to eat, Sienna." Clint said, not turning around towards her again.

When the two of them had left earshot, everyone turned to Sienna, who looked down at her lap, her ears red.

"Sienna." Steve said, trying to get her to look up at him. When she didn't, he added "look at me, please."

She looked up reluctantly, amidst a couple tears. She knew that they would make her eat, now. And also that they would be watching her from now on, until she started eating to their standards.

"What did Clint mean by that?" Steve asked, patiently, though inside he was fuming, as he, too, guessed what was going on.

"Wanda was eating my food when we thought you weren't looking." Sienna said quietly, looking him in the eyes.

He sighed and looked down, in disbelief, despite the fact that he guessed it. Tony spoke up so Steve didn't have to, "you will sit there until you've eaten half of what was originally on your plate. And no library tomorrow. Capiche?"

"Yeah." Sienna said, wondering how long that was going to take. Her food would be long since cold if she waited until she was actually hungry to eat, and she would throw up right now if she ate any more.

Slowly, everyone left the table as they finished, until it was just Nat and her left. Rhodes, who had come back after being away from the tower for a couple days, grabbed Nat's plate from her.

Nat decided to wait and watch the girl, to let everyone else off the hook.

Sienna took a bite, but almost regurgitated it immediately. She had to work to keep it down.

"Hey, if you aren't hungry right now, just wait a bit. We can talk for a couple minutes, and then see if you're hungry then." Nat said, moving so she sat directly across from her. "And if it's not warm enough for you, then, I'll heat it up. How does that sound?"

"Better." Sienna admitted. At least now she'd have time for her body to create a little more space. She really wished she could just flick a switch and be hungry all the time.

"I thought so. So tell me, how was shopping today?"

"Tiring. I don't typically shop with people, and we had been there so long I just wanted to grab what would fit and leave, but they made me try everything on. It wouldn't have been so bad, but Wanda grabbed a bunch of clothes I hadn't picked up and Steve made me try on at least one of everything."

"Well, sometimes it's good to know they fit. I know some companies say they're a size small, but they actually mean extra small or even sometimes medium. It's all according to what their standards are for women." Nat said, thinking she would have probably done the same in a similar situation. "So what all did you get?"

"Lots of shirts, some shorts and jeans, socks, and some workout clothes. Wanda got skirts because she wanted me to wear them, but I didn't want to, so Steve convinced her I could borrow them if I ever felt so inclined." Sienna said, remembering how the skirt felt and shivering.

Nat thought about this, then realized something. "No bras, underwear?"

Sienna flushed. She hadn't really talked about getting those things with anyone since her mother died, and even before that point, it was awkward for her.

"Everyone needs undergarments, Sienna, it's nothing to get embarrassed over."

"I think it might be if Steve didn't think to buy any." Sienna said.

"How many do you have?" Nat asked, once again ignoring the embarrassed look on her face.

"Um, I have three pairs of underwear and two bras with me, in the room." She said, a bit flustered. "Well, two pairs of underwear and one bra in the room. I'm wearing the others, now. I wash them when I shower."

"Okay, well if anything, you needed more of both of those. How about just you and I go out tomorrow to get some? We won't bring anyone else, so you don't really have to shop with people, and Wanda can't pick out a million things for you to try on." Nat suggested.

"Alright." Sienna said, not knowing if she was happy about this new outing or not.

"So, apart from reading, what else do you like?" Nat asked, changing the subject so the girl wouldn't be embarrassed anymore.

"I don't really know. I kind of like movies, as I guess you guessed based on where you picked me up, and I like listening to the radio. It kept me informed because I couldn't afford a tv. I also like hiking, I guess, and drawing. I'm a really bad drawer, though."

"I bet you're still better than I am." Nat said, smiling.

"I'm really not that good. The things I draw are just things people with talent would doodle but would take me weeks to achieve something half as good. I like it, but I'm not good at it. At least it gives me something to do."

"We can find sketch books and pencils, if you wanted." Nat said, thinking about whether or not they would have any. "I think, actually, Tony uses them in his designing of stuff. I'll snatch a couple of his extras for you." She winked at her, and Sienna smiled. At least no one would be spending the money on her.

They talked for another 15 minutes before Tony walked back in to the dining area.

"You haven't touched anything since we left the table!" He exclaimed, not very loudly, but forcefully enough.

"Tony, it's okay. I'm letting her wait a bit before she eats again, so her body can adjust. I'll heat it up when she's ready." Nat said, defending the young girl cowering in her seat. "Just go, you're scaring her."

Tony was shocked at that. "I'm sorry, Sienna. I didn't mean to scare you. I was just frustrated."

"I'm sorry I don't eat very much. I just never used to get three meals, or three good ones at least, in the foster and group homes, and then on my own, I couldn't always afford it, nor did I really ever feel a terrible hunger, so I just didn't eat. My stomach is used to that."

Tony, who had never once in his life not been able to afford something, except when his dad would try and teach him humility by making him save his own money for things, felt his heart ache for her.

"Why don't we heat it up again, and whatever you're hungry for then, you can eat, if not, we'll slowly integrate more food into your diet daily, how does that sound?" Tony asked, surprising Nat by his quick change of tone.

"Better than making me eat it all right now."

Nat suppressed a laugh. Tony grabbed her plate, and took it to the microwave.

"Does this mean I'm still not allowed in the library tomorrow?" Sienna asked, realizing she had gotten away with not eating.

"Yes, it does." Nat said, crossing into a mild disciplinary tone. "You know it was wrong what you were doing with Wanda- and don't try to tell me it wasn't, you were trying to keep it a secret from us, something you wouldn't have to do unless it was wrong, and you knew it. You're lucky it was only the day. If it weren't for Tony, and the fact that we won't overstep another person's decision when it comes to discipline, unless it's too harsh, I would have made it a longer sentence."

"Well then why is Wanda being spanked probably by Clint? Why doesn't she just get banned from something, too?"

"Because that was his judgement call, and she knew that you were underweight, and that we should all be trying to get your weight up. She knew she was doing something wrong possibly more than you did. If you really weren't hungry-"

"Which I wasn't."

"Then you wouldn't have been doing something wrong had you told us and explained the situation like you did with Tony."

"But I tried explaining it before, and it didn't work."

"Well," Nat said, and realized she was basically just talking in circles, "like I said, one person won't go over what another has said, and if Tony had decided it was enough, then you could have stopped. Wanda, on the other hand, knew what she was doing was wrong, and didn't do it for any other reason other than to get you out of trouble. And while we encourage that in fights, we don't allow it to happen between us."

"Which," Tony said as he came in, "would be good to remember. I think everyone here has felt Cap's wrath at one point for keeping something to ourselves that could affect the family, or could endanger oneself, like you were doing, so it's best to just keep that little tidbit in mind."

He put down the food in front of her, and they watched as she ate about six mouthfuls of food before exclaiming she couldn't do it anymore.

"Alrighty then." Tony said, picking up her plate once again and bringing it to the compost, to dump the food.

"I think I'm going to go see how Wanda is." Sienna said, getting up.

"No. You can come watch a movie you may have missed in these past couple of years with me in my room." Nat said, pulling her along towards her room instead of letting her go along to her hallway.

"Why can't I see her?"

"Many reasons. After you're punished, you typically go to sleep, or you're confined to your room for the rest of the night. Unless the disciplinarian looks for you to go and comfort the punished, you aren't allowed to."

She didn't let the girl argue any more, and made her pick a movie she thought sounded the best from the options given.

SM

While dinner was finishing, Wanda was busy trying to get out of her current predicament.

"Clint, it wasn't a big deal. She wasn't hungry, I was. Fair trade." But he didn't stop pulling her along to her room.

She would have stopped him, but she had made a promise to herself never to use her powers on her teammates, and if she ever did, she would have to be on the run forever from all of them, because there was no way anyone would let that slide.

He got to her door, opened it, and pushed her inside.

"Sit." He said, releasing her, and pointing to her bed. She did as she was told, and looked up at him in trepidation. She knew she was in trouble, and she knew why, she just didn't think it was that big of a deal. So, she made that clear, again.

"She really just couldn't eat anymore." Wanda said, justifying her actions.

"Well, that was up to her to decide, and bring up with an adult."

"But I am an adult! I'm 18." Wanda said, knowing that that meant virtually nothing to him.

"Yes, I know, but you are still the youngest out of us, and you still need to listen to our rules. And that will never change. Everyone here has to listen to the rules." Clint said.

"Are there any rules which say I can't eat someone else's food if they ask me to?" Wanda said defiantly, crossing her arms.

Clint was stuck. There wasn't, really. "No, but she was told to eat her meal, and trying to trick us is a lie by omission." There. That works. "You knew very well you weren't supposed to be doing it. I was watching you two for a while doing your little trick, you were trying to hide it."

Lying was bad. Wanda knew this, and was reminded why it was so bad often enough.

"But you guys were making her eat when she couldn't anymore! We didn't see another way, and it worked this morn-" she cut herself off, but the damage had been done already.

"You pulled this this morning, too?" Clint asked, angrily.

Wanda refused to look at him.

He bent down in front of her face and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look back into his eyes. She didn't like the anger she saw there. "Answer me."

"She wasn't hungry, then, either." Wanda said, answering his question without saying the word "yes."

He let her chin go, and turned away. "Geez, Wanda! You know how underfed she is! You've seen how tiny she is! She needs to take vitamins just to get all the missing nutrients back in order! And it's better for her system to take them with food! You can't just eat the nutrients she needs, she won't get better that way! She had ice cream today, which is what made her full, but that's not enough to sustain her. She needs the kinds of meals we're providing."

She was teary eyed at this point, she only wanted to help her friend. She thought she was doing the right thing.

Clint needed to settle down before he dealt with her. He couldn't spank her now while he felt the way he did.

"Go stand in the corner and think about what you did wrong, I'll come get you when I'm ready to deal with you."

She did as she was told, and he walked into her bathroom, splashing cold water on his face and trying to calm down. He took ten deep breaths then headed back out.

Sitting on her bed, he braced steeled himself for what he had to do.

"Wanda, come here." She turned around and walked to him, standing in front of his legs. "Please tell me what you did wrong."

"I ate food for someone who didn't want to eat what was on their plate." Wanda said defiantly.

"You are not in a very good position to be smart with me, young lady. Now properly, what did you do wrong?"

Wanda sighed. She could keep being defiant or save her butt a few extra smacks by saying what he wanted to hear.

"I helped Sienna trick you guys into thinking she was eating her food, and I guess that means we lied about it."

"Yes. And why is that wrong?"

"Because she needs to eat to get healthy and we are only ever allowed to lie to one another when it's concerning presents for the other people."

"I think that about covers it." And with that, Clint pulled her over his knee, and pulled down her pants and underwear in one swift movement.

"Wait! Bare? Does this really warrant that?" Wanda asked, putting her hand back to try and stop him.

He just grabbed it and held it at the small of her back. "You endangered her life, and lied to us. You're lucky I'm only using my hand."

The smacks started hard and fast, with no gradual incline. Wanda started squirming almost immediately. He ignored this, as he had a good grip on her, and kept up the pace, aiming swats all around the upturned butt in front of him.

She started tearing up quickly. Her ass already felt like it was on fire, and he had only been spanking her for about a minute.

"Please, Clint! It hurts! I won't do it again!"

"It's supposed to hurt. That's why it's called a punishment." Clint said, not slowing his pace. Her bottom was quickly turning a nice deep shade of pink. "And I know you won't do it again, because if you do, I have a nice hairbrush, or even an old arrow that would work nicely as a switch."

She started crying full on, pulling the hand that was behind her back from Clint's grip so she could cover both her eyes with them.

She kept muttering "please stop"s and "I'll be good"s but Clint didn't falter in his pace. He kept going for about three minutes, and in that time her butt turned from a deep pink to an undoubtable red.

She went limp over his lap at this point, crying to her heart's content, as she felt like the pain in her ass just wouldn't stop.

That was when he raised his knee. She knew this meant that it was almost over, but she also knew that this was the worst part.

"No, please Clint!" She begged as he began turning her sit spots pink.

"I don't ever want to see you eating her food like that, again." He said, glad it was almost over. He may not have been faltering with the swats, but with every tear and sob he heard, he almost considered stopping. The only reason he didn't was because he knew it wouldn't be in her best interest to do so. "Or lying to us for any reason. Persisting in that could seriously put her on the wrong track of recovery, and if when we go in to the doctor they see that her health hasn't changed, they may take her from us!"

Wanda cried more, and Clint heard something along the lines of "I promise I won't again" come from her. That's when he laid the final four smacks, the hardest of all, two on her left sit spot and two on her right, and finished.

She was crying, inconsolable for a while, but realized that he had stopped spanking her, and was now rubbing her back. She tried to calm herself down, and slowly her breathing came back to normal, save for her occasional hiccuping.

When he saw that she was doing alright, he pulled up her underwear to give her some decency, although she would have preferred they stayed down based on how much it hurt, and picked her up.

She was cradled in his arms, and he moved to sit by her headboard, and he placed her bottom in between his legs to suspend them above the mattress, as he let her cry once again into his shoulder.

"All is forgiven now, Wanda. I know it hurts, but it won't last forever."

"But I could have harmed her, I could have affected her chances of staying here with us!" She cried, holding onto him for dear life. The thought of losing another sibling, even if it was just a foster sibling, was too much.

"But you didn't really. And we caught it early, and you've been punished for it. To everyone else, it's in the past. No one will let someone take her from us."

He kept muttering reassurances in her ear, and eventually she calmed down for the second time, enjoying just sitting there, being held closely by a parental figure of hers.

After a good twenty minutes, she fell asleep. But he didn't move. He kept holding on to her, and wishing he didn't have to be the one to cause one of his little girls pain.

He had to keep reminding himself that this pain was temporary, and if it kept her from doing more permanent damage to someone or herself, he had to steel himself and keep it up.

They stayed like that for about an hour, him, lost in thought, her, snuggly protected by him.

Then, when he felt it was time, he moved again, and set her in bed on her stomach. She stirred a bit as he did so, but didn't wake up.

He quietly left the room and went to go pour himself a glass of whiskey. Tony had it out for him already.

"Thanks." He said, downing it. Looking around, he noticed that Pepper, Nat and Sienna were missing. "Where'd the girls go?"

"Pepper's left for a conference she won't let me come on, and Nat and Sienna are watching a movie." Tony said, a little bitter about Pepper.

"Did she... Eat?" Clint asked, trepidatiously.

"As much as she could eat. We're just going to have to work on her eating for a while, I guess." Tony said.

"Yeah." Sam said, thinking about it, then smiling. "Also little Tink was mad at you. You could tell she wanted to go see Wanda. May be mad at you for a bit."

"Yeah well I'll take it so long as she continues eating properly."

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, eventually turning on the tv to mindlessly watch sports.

When Clint began to feel his eyelids drooping, he said his goodnights, and headed to his room. As he passed Nat's room, her door opened, and Clint got a glimpse of Nat lying there with a blanket covering her body, and saw Sienna, coming out of the dark room.

She looked at him, but refused to say anything, and he could tell from her body language that she was mad at him.

Well, better to let her sleep it off than explode at me and have me needing to spank another insubordinate child today, he thought, closing the door to his bedroom.

SM

Four am the next morning came quickly, and Sienna put on her socks and left the room. She walked straight into Wanda's, and gently woke the girl up. She wasn't allowed to see her yesterday, but she damn well would talk to her now.

Wanda looked at her and went to turn over from her stomach, but Sienna stopped her.

"You won't want to do that. I've made that mistake." She whispered.

"Oh, yeah, thanks." Wanda said, whispering. "What are you doing here? What time is it?"

Sienna looked sorry. "It's four am. I wanted to talk to you before they woke up, and make sure you're okay. And apologize for being the reason you got into trouble."

"It's okay. It was my fault, too." Wanda whispered back.

"Sorry for waking you." Sienna said as she saw Wanda yawn a bit. "Do you want me to get you the cream you offered me before you fall back asleep?"

But Wanda had already dozed off again. Not knowing where the cream was, she decided that she wouldn't make more noise than was absolutely necessary looking for it. She left the room, and again walked back to hers, unsure of what to do now.

That's when she had an idea. The indoor pool she had seen on the first day had stayed, as far as she knew, vacant the entire time she had been staying with the Avengers.

She liked swimming enough, and figured it was the only place to go, since she wasn't allowed in the training room or the library. Plus, it would mean Clint would have to look hard for her, and she wanted to make him pay for what he did to Wanda.

Sienna hadn't had a swimming suit since her parents had died, so she had to make up what to wear now to swim in.

She could wear an old bra and underwear, since her and Nat would be going to buy some more today, with an old t-shirt and the lightest of her old pants. Not ideal to swim in, it would be a little bulky, but it was better than nothing.

Keeping her socks on to stay quiet, she made her way to the pool. As she had only seen it that one time, it was a little harder to find than the library, but she knew this place decently well at this point, and knew where the pool _couldn't_ be, so she looked in all the places it could.

About ten minutes later, she was inside the little area. It was a nice sized pool, around the same size as the community one she used to go to for summer camps when she was younger. She slipped off her socks, left them on the side of the room, then headed towards the staircase. The water was a little chilly, but she was well covered enough that it wouldn't be too bad. Once she had waded in up to her waist, she dunked herself completely, letting the cool water engulf her before she moved around a bit.

In order to get warm, she knew she was going to need to do laps, so she did. About 100 of them, before she began to bore of that.

She looked around for something to entertain herself with, and saw a bin on the side of the room, hopefully filled with pool toys.

Luck was on her side! She found a noodle, some game, a beach ball, and a pair of weights, of which she grabbed one.

"Let's see if I can still tread water with one of these things." She said to herself, wading back in, and then trying to do it, struggling a bit, but not entirely drowning. "I'll time myself and see how much of it I still have left." She said, and looked at the clock. 6:30.

She was pleased to find that Clint had most likely been up for a while, and would perhaps be looking for her. Serves him right to think she had run away. He shouldn't have spanked Wanda. Their punishments should have been equal.

She pushed those thoughts aside, so she could focus on her treading. She watched the clock as it passed the thirty second, then a minute, then two minute mark. She was about to hit two and a half minutes when she heard a voice from behind her.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" She dropped the weight and turned around, looking at a furious looking Clint. "I have been looking everywhere for you."

"Well, here I am." She said, narrowing her eyes at him and crossing her arms. "What do you want?"

"Drop the attitude, young lady. You're already in enough trouble."

"Why's that? Because I didn't go into the library or the training room or anywhere else I wasn't allowed to?"

Clint, caught off guard, again, by a kid who pointed out where his argument was flawed, took a minute to respond. "Common sense says you shouldn't swim alone, when you could drown, especially carrying that weight that's now on the bottom of the pool."

"I'm a good enough swimmer. I don't need someone to watch me."

"Even good swimmers have their bad days. Come here." He said, pointing to the spot in front of him.

"No. I'm going to stay here, thank you."

"No, you'll come here." He said, losing patience.

"No, I'm mad at you, besides, I can swim freely without accusation now that you're here to supervise."

"Why are you mad at me?" He asked, although he knew the answer already.

"Because you shouldn't have spanked Wanda!" Sienna exclaimed, still treading water in the middle of the pool. "She was just trying to be my friend!"

"While knowingly putting you in danger. We've all sat through Nat's lecture of 'she's too skinny, she needs more nutrients' and she knows that eating your food could cause health problems! You have a doctor's appointment in a month. If you aren't progressing nicely, they'll take you away, and probably send you back to juvi!"

"You could have just grounded her, like I was."

"Well, sometimes being grounded makes people be defiant with what they're allowed to do, like you were."

"No one ever said, 'don't swim in the pool'!" Sienna exclaimed, still not sure why she was in trouble for that one.

"None of us knew you could swim!" Clint exclaimed back. "Now that I know you can, we'll talk about it. Until then, come here." Once again, he pointed to the spot on the pool wall in front of him.

What she did next surprised him. She actually swam towards him. But she had other plans, and when he reached down to grab her hand and pull her out, she pushed off from the wall towards the middle of the pool, bringing him with her.

He came up sputtering. She smiled at him sheepishly then swam away. "Oh no you don't." He said, but the anger he had had before dissolved with the cold water.

He caught up to her and grabbed her, her shrieking. "You think you can do that to me and get away with it?"

She was worried now. She had hoped to get out of trouble, not into more of it. But she received a shock on her end when he picked her up, and threw her. She shrieked again.

Having seemingly forgotten their tiff, Sienna and Clint kept up a splash war in the pool, Sienna eventually grabbing the noodle to blow large amounts of water at him at a time.

Both of them were too distracted to notice the rest of the team, save Wanda who was still asleep, watching them play fight.

They walked up to the edge of the pool, undetected by Sienna, but seen by Clint, who ignored them in favour of not getting blasted with a noodle again.

"Hey Tony." Steve said, absently. "Is your reactor waterproof?"

"Yeah, why?" Tony asked, but as soon as he said that, Steve pushed him into the water, shocking Sienna, and admittedly all the other avengers.

"Oh you're going to pay for that one, Cap." Tony said, sputtering as he came up, but Sam was unceremoniously thrown in after him.

Steve had a twinkle in his eye. "Who's next?"

Nat ran, but Rhodes caught her, and threw her in. Sienna started laughing, and everyone else followed suit.

Steve and Vision teamed up, and were able to get Rhodes in the pool as well.

Then it was Steve versus Vision.

"You know you cannot beat me." Vision said, loving that he was stronger than Steve. "You are going to be next."

"Oh but I'll go down fighting."

Vision had distracted Steve enough for Sienna to get out of the pool, and tackle him. He was caught off guard, but still didn't move enough to fall in, so Vision pushed him a bit, causing the supersoldier and the teen to fall into the pool.

Sienna swam up towards the surface, and was immediately caught in another splash war, this time by Nat.

"Wait! Vision, are you not coming in?" Steve asked, knowing there would be no way to make him if he didn't want to.

"I'll be moderator." He replied, looking amused and watching everything unfold.

Soon enough, two teams had formed, and, had it not been for the specially designed grates, the pool would have had less water than the sides.

There was no real way to tell who was winning or losing in a splash war, but that was okay with everyone.

When everyone got tired of the incessant splashing, they decided to change their sport.

They divided up and began playing various games; pool horseshoe, Marco Polo, water polo, and a tossing game.

Everyone was laughing and having a great time, especially Sienna, who hadn't laughed so much in years.

She, being the smallest, was easiest for any of them to grab and throw into the deep end, so they did. A lot. She tried to get them back by jumping on their backs, making them go under water, but often her stealth attacks weren't so stealthy, and she would just end up piggy backing them.

When this would happen to Steve, he would grip her legs firmly. And start spinning. This became a game of who would get dizzier and let go first, with Steve winning almost every time, as he couldn't get vertigo, and she could.

Finally, everyone seemed to tire, and Vision volunteered to go gather towels for everyone.

Sienna was on Sam's back at this point, as he had been the most recent to toss her, and she let him carry her out of the pool, not realizing until too late that he was walking around it to the deep end to toss her again.

Everyone was laughing, including Sienna, and she took in their appearances, which made her laugh more. All of them in clothes, it was evident this wasn't planned, and they all looked ridiculous.

"Right. I think we should dry off, get changed, and then put all our clothes in the wash." Nat said, trying to unpeel her shirt from her body.

"Wash? Isn't this wash enough?" Tony asked, ringing out his own shirt.

"The chlorine isn't good for the clothes. It would be best to just put them all in the washing machine, even just for a little bit, before switching to the dryer." She said, grabbing a towel from Vision who had returned.

Rhodes looked down and saw that Sienna was still in the pool. He reached down to help her out, and she gratefully accepted it. She was immediately engulfed in a nice and fluffy towel, and she held onto it, hoping it would do to just keep it on her body. It was too cold to remove from her arms to dry herself properly.

Vision, seeing this, brought an extra towel over, and helped her dry by patting it around her as best he could. He then tried to dry her hair. It didn't really work, but it did enough, and Sienna was too happy being babied to say anything.

"Alright. Vision, can you start breakfast? We'll get changed and join you soon." Steve asked, getting a nod from the AI.

"Sienna, once you're dressed, can you get Wanda, make sure she's up?"

"Yeah, sure." Sienna said, walking over to her soaked socks, probably from the splashing, and wringing them out. "Believe it or not, I'm starving." She added, as her stomach rumbled.

Everyone turned to look at her, dumbfounded. "You are?" Nat asked, a smile on her face.

"Yeah, that was a workout. My body needs energy."

"Well look at that," Sam said, pulling her into a headlock and giving her a nuggie, "little Tink just needed exercise."

"Jerk." She said, pushing him off.

"Looks like it." Said Tony, looking at Steve. "We're going to have to let the girl do more."

"We aren't training her." Steve reminded him. He wanted to make sure the girl had a chance to have a normal life.

"But she likes to hike." Nat said. "We can do that. Or go on walks, bike rides, etc. there's more than one way to get exercise."

"I could keep swimming in the mornings." Sienna suggested, happy to talk about being allowed to do more.

"Not without supervision." Clint said, reverting back to his demeanor from before, but less threatening.

"We'll figure it out. For now, let's get dry." Steve said, leaving the pool area.

SM

Nice and dry except for her hair, Sienna peeked into Wanda's room.

"Hey, you awake?" She whispered. Wanda stirred a bit, making "mmm" sounds but not opening her eyes.

Sienna walked into her room and sat on the bed. "You missed swimming. It was crazy. I haven't had that much fun in years."

"Hmm? Oh, yes. We can go swimming later." Wanda said, still not really awake.

"No, that's not what I said." Sienna said, laughing a bit. "But we can go swimming some other time. I think I should get a suit first, though, and we should let you heal up a bit, so whatever shade your butt is, it won't show."

"Ugh don't remind me." Wanda said, turning over. "I reminded me!"

She had turned onto her still sore behind.

She jumped out of bed. "I am not a stomach sleeper. I kept waking up last night when I turned."

"Oh, that's unfortunate. I guess I should count my lucky stars I always sleep on my stomach." Sienna replied, not knowing how she would take it, wanting to sleep on your stomach but not being able to.

"I'm going to go put some cream on." Said Wanda, heading towards her bathroom. "Can you please make sure no one comes in?"

"Yeah." Sienna said, sitting back on the bed while she waited for her friend. There was a knock on the door before it opened.

"Breakfast is ready." Nat said, coming in. "Where's Wanda?"

"Just going to the bathroom, Sienna lied easily."

"Cream?" Nat asked, knowingly.

"How did you-?" Sienna asked, but Wanda came out then.

"She's the one who gave it to me the first time. Couldn't bear to see me in pain."

"It doesn't take it all out so it's still effective. Plus, if you really deserved a longer wait, I'd have it out of your room before you knew it." She winked at both of them. "Now come on, let's go eat some breakfast, then I believe Sienna and I have some errands to run."

SM

They were back at the mall, but this time in only one store, PINK.

"I don't think these are really my style..." Sienna said, picking up an article of... Well not much.

"This is both Victoria's Secret and PINK, in two stores. You'll probably like the PINK side. We can find some generic bras and underwear here."

"Uh, okay." Sienna said.

"What size are you?" Nat asked, picking up a really plain white bra. Perfect.

"Um... Last I checked a... B?"

"You don't know?" Nat asked, raising one eyebrow. "Well, we should get you fitted, then.

She dragged her along to a worker, who sized Sienna, and then set off to find them a bunch of bras in the size they wanted.

"While we're waiting for her, pick out some underwear. It's $5 for $20, so we'll get about 15 pairs for you, so you can go up to two weeks without needing to do your laundry."

"Alright." Sienna said, picking out the regular shapes (or what she thought were regular shapes) and in fabrics she liked. "I only have 7."

"Double up, then, and grab a third of your favourite."

This was all uncomfortable for Sienna, but nothing was going to prepare her for the onslaught of bras the worker brought them.

"Pick out the ones you like and try them on." The lady said, dumping them on the counter.

Sienna picked out three, two white and a black, and tried them all on. They fit perfectly.

"Okay, these are good."

"Good, let's go." Nat said, smiling at her, and knowing just how uncomfortable the girl had been.

They paid way too much for them in Sienna's opinion, but "these are essentials. You don't cheap out on those." So that was that.

"Now, why don't we go get one bathing suit for you. Just one. So we don't keep swimming in our clothes."

As Sienna was trying on the two one-piece bathing suits she liked, having only one fit her, Nat was picking out some for all the others.

"I've never seen them swim before." She said, as Sienna looked curiously at the pile on the counter. "I don't know if they have any. So, we're just going to get some for everyone."

"Are Steve's the ones with the American flag on them?"

"Maybe." Nat smirked, and Sienna smiled at her.

SM

"Now what?" Sienna asked, as they put their stuff in the van.

"I was thinking we'd just go back. Steve's a worrywart, and if you don't return, since he's legally the one on paper who's responsible for you, I think he'd freak out."

"Okay."

When they got back, Sienna had a hard time not going towards the library. All she really wanted was to read.

Instead, she sat on the couch with Nat and Steve, watching some documentary about the Cold War.

When it was over, Steve turned to Sienna. "I missed a lot."

"You did. So have I, and it's only been a few years since my parents died and I've been shut out. I can't imagine what it was like for you."

"It's definitely an adjustment." Steve said. "So, you don't talk much about your parents, and as a respect of your privacy, I haven't looked at your file. What were they like?"

Sienna smiled, and looked at her hands before looking back up at Steve and Nat. "Well, they were great. Quirky, if my friends parents were the normal scales on which to base my knowledge, but great. Didn't trust banks at all. All their pay checks would come straight out and they would keep it in a safe. They were both teachers, and they loved to read, so they also wrote books on the side. That paid for most of our bills. Mom was always dying her hair funky colours, and dad's stayed brown. Though they didn't have a bank account really, the bank let them mortgage out the house, because their down payment was so large, and then in no time, they owned the place outright. But they still kept all their money in a safe. That's how I lived on my own. As soon as I knew they had died, I took the money, and ran to a bank before social servies could take me. My parents also loved going on 'safari' which to them was people watching in Central Park. And every year before we opened Christmas presents, or had Christmas breakfast at 5 in the morning, we had a crazy dance party. They were great, goofy, quirky, but amazing. I miss them all the time."

Her mind had been everywhere, but with this last sentence, she started to cry.

"Hey," said Steve and Nat at the same time, moving to sit on either side of her, hugging her. Nat rubbed her back while Steve kept ahold of her shoulders while she cried.

"Can- can we go visit their graves?" She asked, tentatively.

"Absolutely." Steve said, getting up.

 **So, that's it! Some light stuff, some bonding stuff, some sad, happy and painful stuff. Hope you enjoyed! I'll try and update once a week with about 5,000-7,000 words. This time I got carried away.  
** **Please recommend to your friends and comment! It's always fun to see what you guys say :)**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

"Do you want anyone else to come with us, or just the three of us?" Nat asked, as she saw Rhodes and Tony walking towards them, talking.

"I think maybe just you two?" Sienna said hesitantly. "I haven't been able to visit them since I was on the run, and I don't want too many people to see me like that."

"That's perfectly fair." Said Steve, putting a hand on her shoulder. "But you don't have to be embarrassed in front of us. We won't allow anyone else to come this time, but you shouldn't worry about anyone judging you for how you react to things, okay?"

"Okay." Sienna said, and walked side by side with Nat and Steve to the van.

"Why don't you sit up front with Steve, and I'll stay in the back." Nat suggested, as Sienna was heading towards the back doors. "That way you can tell us where to go."

"Okay." Sienna said, hopping in the front.

Nat sent a quick text to everyone else in the house as they were heading out, explaining the situation.

Sienna directed them as best she could, as she never used to take the roads when getting to the gravesite, despite having a car. "I think if we just park here, I can better maneuver us while we walk."

Steve parallel parked, then they all jumped out, with Steve and Nat following a bit behind Sienna as she made her way.

At the entrance to the cemetery, a vendor was selling single roses.

"Six, please." Steve said, pulling out his wallet. Sienna looked at him skeptically. "One for each of your parents for each of us to put down."

Sienna was thankful for this as she hadn't thought of bringing anything, and gratefully accepted the two roses from Steve.

They walked an intricate path, but it was one Sienna knew by heart, despite not having been there for quite a while.

"They're just over there." Sienna pointed, before stopping under a tree and turning to her guardians. "Do... do you mind if I go see them first? Alone?" She didn't want to hurt their feelings, she just wanted to be alone with her parents, something she hadn't been in a while.

They didn't seem hurt by this, though. "Of course. We'll be right here whenever you're ready." Nat said, smiling, and putting her hand on Sienna's forearm, squeezing gently.

Sienna nodded her thanks, and began to walk the rest of the way to her parents' shared gravestone. It read;

Two eagles have spread their wings and have taken flight, their destination known only to them.

Richard T Montgomery, 01/01/1970-05/04/2012

Amelia M Montgomery, 11/16/1970-05/04/2012

"Hey mom, hey dad." Sienna said as she got there, "I'm sorry I haven't been in a while, but I was trying to stay away from the man, and I think you would have understood that."

She put the flowers in front of the gravestone, one on each side.

"But, the man caught me. I gave 'em hell along the way, but I guess there's only so much running you can do. Maybe I'll do it again someday, but for now, my foster family seems to want to keep me. I know we all know that could change, and they could be taken away just as easily as you were, so I'm keeping the apartment."

She began to laugh a bit, thinking of her parents and the way they would take the predicament she was in. "You wouldn't believe these people. They trust banks, the government, they have more money than they probably know what to do with. There's an indoor pool the size of our old community pool. Decently different from our old lifestyle, but I'm okay with it. I don't think I could take it if another family tried to be just like you guys." She began tearing up quite a bit. "I just miss you so much. I wish I could take that day back and tell you not to go to that meeting. I wish I could tell you I love you and give you a hug one more time. I just want my family back."

She fell to her knees, crying at the ground. Not fifteen seconds later, she felt a hand on her back, and Steve was crouching down beside her. She leaned into him.

"Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery. It's nice to meet you. I'm Steve." Steve said, putting down his flowers beside hers. "I wish we never had to, and that your family could be whole, and your daughter with her parents."

This wasn't terribly comforting to Sienna, who cried more. But Steve wasn't finished. "But it is now my privilege to care for this amazing daughter of yours, and I promise to be the best caretaker I can. My friends and I have made this commitment, which we will not be going to break any time soon. Thank you for raising such a wonderful girl, and giving her, as far as I can tell, such great values. I promise that you will live on in her."

Sienna had stopped crying a bit, and now leant in to Steve's side more, thankful for his support.

Nat walked up to the grave stone, and put her hand on it. "I'm Nat." She said, feeling a little strange to be doing this, but knowing it would help Sienna. "I'm Steve's friend. And I, too, promise to take care of your daughter. I don't know what else to add onto what he said, other than I'm sorry that you had to make the sacrifice you did, and I will make sure it wasn't in vain." She had recognized the date on the gravestone, as did Steve.

She put her flowers down, and backed up to beside Steve and Sienna.

"I miss you. Hope Heaven is treating you well." Sienna said, then turned around, walking away.

Steve and Nat were surprised by this sudden goodbye, but knew she knew her limits.

"Hey, we actually have a friend who has a grave here, why don't we go visit?"

"Oh, yeah, sure. Should we get some flowers for them, too?" Sienna said, looking back at the six roses on her parents' grave.

"No," Steve said, unsure, now. "He didn't actually die, he just needed to make the bad guys think he was dead."

He was worried about her reaction. His friend had fake died while her parents actually did.

He needn't have worried, though. "Wow, so we're visiting an empty grave to keep up appearances?"

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." Nat said, as she navigated her way towards Fury's gravesite.

"Well I know it's probably not, but I'm going to pretend like this is a covert plan and really important to keep up, then, because I know at this point that's as close to a 'mission' as you'll ever let me get." Sienna said, her face bright despite the dried tears that had settled on her face.

"Yeah well you're right about one thing; you aren't getting any closer to a mission than this." Steve said, an authoritative tone to his voice that said he wouldn't argue the matter further.

Walking up to the headstone, Sienna read the name. "Was he always mad? Did his name suit him?"

"Not always." Nat said, laughing.

"But his name still does suit him." Steve said, reminding Sienna lightly that Fury had only fake died. "Don't get on his bad side."

"Since unfreezing, Steve has only been in trouble one time. It was with him." Sienna's eyes widened at this realization.

" _You_ got into trouble? But you're Mr. Perfect!"

"Oh no I'm not." Steve said, laughing, "I'm just everyone's elder and therefore the wisest." Nat snorted. Steve glanced at her, smirking, but said nothing to her. "But being in trouble... well, that kind of trouble, we all have been in danger every now and then... it had a different effect on me than most people I know. _I_ haven't repeated my misdoings."

" _I_ am perfect and I don't know what you're talking about." Nat said, turning around and bumping shoulders with him as she passed to head towards the van.

"Hmph." Steve said, looking at Sienna, who smiled.

SM

On their way home from the cemetery, they got a text from Wanda saying that everyone had gone out for dinner, and that they should meet them there.

Sienna and Wanda weren't allowed to sit beside each other, but they were allowed to sit across from each other, and so they did. They talked throughout the meal, ignoring the others around them, about books, and the movies Sienna should watch.

"You should watch the new Superman movie. I don't know if you've seen the old ones, but you don't really need to. And, Superman is hot." Wanda said, before taking a bite of her pasta.

"Actually, I'm not big on superheroes, funnily enough." Sienna said, laughing. "I really like kids movies, though, and comedies. I mean, I never really got to see much before my parents died, because I was so young, so I don't know if my cinematic tastes have evolved."

"That's fair. Well, we can figure it out." Wanda said, eating more. She hadn't really been able to watch many movies, either, when she had been captured, but that was all they did in the beginning, when she first came back to America with the Avengers between training sessions.

"Do you think I'll ever be able to watch you guys train?" Sienna asked, spooning a mouthful of soup into her mouth.

"I highly doubt it." Vision said from beside Wanda. "Steve wants you kept as far away from this as possible. We know how dangerous it is, and we have a duty to continue it. You don't. So you won't."

"But shouldn't it be my choice?" Sienna asked, frazzled by this, once again.

"No. As your legal guardians-" Vision began, but Sienna cut him off.

"For now."

"We reserve the right- excuse me?"

"I'm just saying no 'legal guardian' I've ever had has stayed that, by their own volition or not. And as much as you guys say you'll be there, it's hard to believe. People leave. Whether by death or by choice, and you guys seem to be in the line of business where leaving by choice would be to protect me from death, and death could be around every corner. So yeah, you're my guardians, for now, and when you inevitably leave, I'll be left defenceless, because no one will teach me a thing."

With that, Sienna stood up, alerting everyone at the table to their discussion, which, miraculously, no one else had heard, pronouncing she was finished.

"Sienna?" Rhodes asked, as he was sitting directly to her left, "are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm finished eating. I'd like to wait in a car, please."

"Do you want someone to take you home?" Rhodes asked again, as he was finished, and could easily take her home, assuming Tony was paying.

"No, you all continue to eat your dinners and talk. I'm just going to be in a car."

Tony, sensing that the best course of action would just be to do as she had requested, handed her a set of keys and his cell phone. "Watch something online while you wait, then." He said, and she grabbed them before walking out.

She headed to the parking lot, pressing the unlock to see which car she could climb into, and found it at the end of the line. She crawled into the backseat and turned on his phone. It had a passcode on it, but also a message from Steve which she could see saying "2857" she punched in the numbers and got into his phone, before texting Steve back.

Got in. Thanks. SM

There's a button labeled Netflix. You can watch a movie or something on there. SR

She pressed the button he said, and found herself on a strange website filled with movies. She pressed the kids button, found Spongebob Squarepants, and mindlessly watched her favourite show as a kid before falling asleep.

SM

Back in the restaurant, everyone was shocked.

"What happened?" Steve asked, looking down the table to Wanda and Vision.

"Hold on, she doesn't have my passcode. Text her 2857 so she can get in."

Steve did so, while Tony said, "we're getting her a phone."

"Alright, what happened?" Clint asked, as the Steve was distracted, texting.

"She was asking to train with us and I explained that she couldn't." Vision said, matter of factly.

"She wants to train so she can protect herself if she needs to because she thinks one way or another we're going to leave her." Wanda said, pushing her finished plate away.

"She still thinks that?" Nat asked, incredulously.

"After all we've done for her?" Rhodes asked.

"If you come to think of it, we haven't really done all that much for her, that other foster families haven't." Sam said, getting everyone's attention. "Sure, we gave her a roof over her head, but she could have gotten that from a different foster family, or from a group home. Our place is a very nice place, only because we have the money. But all she does is read, which she could do anywhere else. We've punished her, forced her to eat, which maybe she didn't always get from the other places, but those are both negative things. Maybe buying her clothes is doing something, but we did so with the money the government gives us for fostering her. So really, we've done nothing out of the ordinary. I think it's fair of her to thing that we will be leaving her, because all we've done is the same thing I'm sure everyone else has done, but with more money as a backbone."

"So what do you suggest we do? What do other foster parents not do?" Tony asked.

"There's probably nothing we can do but stick it out." Sam said, thoughtfully. "I think we just need to show her that we aren't going anywhere. And you can't buy that, or show that, really. That's something that will come with time. A couple weeks in just isn't enough time. And it's only been three years since her parents died, and she's been in how many different homes? People haven't wanted her before, it's hard for her to imagine they do now."

"Three years ago." Steve said, and everyone looked to him. "I'm sure in some capacity we all remember what happened three years ago, but what we saw today confirmed my worst fears."

"What is it, Cap?" Asked Tony.

"Her parents were killed on the day of the battle of New York." Nat finished for Steve, who had looked away. "So either it was just a coincidence, or we couldn't save them."

"I don't blame her for thinking we'll leave." Steve said suddenly. "It was probably partially our fault that her parents died. She probably thinks we'll take away another good thing from her."

Everyone was shocked at this, but mostly Clint and Tony, the only other ones who had actually been there.

"So why hasn't she brought it up, why hasn't she blamed us?" Clint asked, feeling horribly guilty.

"I wish I knew the answer to that." Steve said, "I really wish I did."

Wanda, knowing that the four of them were hurting, desperately tried to change the subject.

"Can she train?" She asked Steve, looking pleadingly up at him. He had tears in his eyes as he looked at her. "She just wants to know how to protect herself if she needs to." Steve nodded at her, and Wanda almost couldn't help the smile that was threatening on her lips.

"Well, let's pay the bill and go let her know." Tony said, getting up with everyone else and throwing enough money on the table to cover everyone and leave a generous tip.

Tony walked out towards his car, the extra keys in his hand to unlock it, and looked in the backseat.

"She's out cold." Rhodes said, looking at the girl still clutching the phone in her hand.

He and Tony got into the car and drove off towards the Avengers building, trying to avoid every pothole and bump they could. Once they got there, Tony got Sienna out of the car and carried her to her room, putting her, clothes and all, to bed.

"I'm so sorry." He whispered, as he walked out.

SM

Sienna awoke the next day as usual bright and early. She had no recollection of coming back last night, but decided it didn't matter.

She got up and out of bed, and walked towards the library, as she was pretty sure she had only been banned from there for a day, and that day had been yesterday. All she wanted to do today was read, and forget what she said yesterday at dinner. Hopefully they would, too.

She appeared to be in luck. No one came to visit her until about 9 o'clock, when she was asked to come for breakfast. At breakfast, though, she received a shock.

"We're going to let you watch us train." Steve said, looking up from his plate at her.

"Really?" Sienna asked, excitedly.

"Yes. And we're going to eventually teach you how to defend yourself. But for now, we just want you to watch."

"This is so cool!" Sienna said, bouncing in her seat.

Tony put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't make us regret our decision before we even let you in."

"Also, this comes with rules." Nat said, getting the girl to switch her attention to her. "You will weigh yourself with one of us every week. You need to build up muscle, and gain a little fat. Both of those things will need to be monitored to make sure you're healthy. Okay?"

A little crestfallen, Sienna mumbled an "okay" but quickly perked up again when Wanda said, "I'm so excited! You'll finally get to see how my powers truly work!"

"Alright, well everybody suit up. Meet back in the training room in ten." Steve said, getting up. Sienna jumped up, but didn't know what to do.

"You're with me." Clint said, coming up behind her. "We'll be watching from our bird's eye view."

He lead her down the hall she knew to lead to the training room, but turned to the right just before entering, opening a door that lead to a staircase. Getting to the top (huffing and puffing on Sienna's part), they sat down on the edge, resting on the bars in front of them.

"This may be boring. All we have to do is watch." But Sienna didn't care. As everyone came into the room, she was amazed at their suits, and at the way their demeanour changed when they were wearing them.

"Okay. Warm up." Steve began leading the team in a warm up, and then he and Nat took turns directing the gang on hand-to-hand combat, defence attacks, and backing up each other as a team.

Wanda was showing off for Sienna, and everyone knew it, but no one said a thing, knowing they, too, were showing off a bit as well.

That was until Wanda missed a completely obvious punch that would have sent her flying back if she didn't see it just in time to throw Sam into the air.

"Wanda!" Pay attention. We know you want to show off, but we all have to make sure not to actually harm each other. And you know you aren't supposed to use your powers like that." Steve reprimanded, giving Sam a hand up.

"Sorry." Wanda said sincerely, then looked to Sam. "Really."

"It's alright. Next time I'll actually get you and we'll be even." Sam said, winking.

"Don't encourage that behaviour, Sam." Nat said, tackling him. "And pay attention. This is the second time you've landed on the floor in less than a minute. And you're supposed to fly."

SM

Back up at the top of the training room, Sienna and Clint were talking strategy. "Are they supposed to be showing that much of their backs?" Sienna asked.

"No, they aren't." Clint said, surprised at how basically everyone but Nat and Steve were keeping their most vulnerable side open.

"Here, I got this." Sienna said, taking the glass of water Clint had gotten her a little while earlier, and taking the straw out of it. "Do you have paper?"

He did, and he also saw where she was going with it, so he didn't try to stop her.

"I learned a few tricks from my younger foster brothers." Sienna said, balling up a small piece of paper, getting it wet and putting it in the bottom of the straw. "I'll help the training."

For the next half hour, whenever someone wasn't looking properly, she would shoot at them, and the wet pieces of paper would fly across the room, always hitting their targets. Everyone saw it hit other people, but they all assumed they had been clear. When the training session was almost up, Clint and Sienna made their way down and into the training area.

Clint walked in first, announcing, "well looks like you guys still need me after all. Can't even protect your backsides if you tried."

"What are you talking about?" Wanda asked, not realizing she had about 5 swabs of wet paper stuck to her back.

Apart from Steve and Nat, none of you were protecting your backs. Sienna, a completely untrained assassin-"

"Who was shooting water bombs and isn't completely untrained in the sport of it-"

"-was able to hit all the rest of you."

"For every hit, you will be running a mile this afternoon." Steve announced, making everyone but Nat groan. "Nice work, Sienna."

Wanda was bristling. All she wanted to do was show off for her new friend, but now she had to run five miles.

SM

After lunch, Wanda decided to get her miles over with. She moodily stalked off to her room to put on her shoes. Leaving her room, she almost ran straight into a sorry faced Sienna.

"I'm sorry you're running these miles because of me." Sienna said, grabbing ahold of the witch's hand and dragging her to her room. "So if you wait for me, I'll come with you!"

"Okay, sure!" Wanda said, now excited to be spending time with her friend. "We can do our five miles, then explore, if you want to."

"Wait, we're going outside?" Sienna asked, excitedly.

"Of course, where else would we run?"

"On the treadmills in the training room?"

"I'm mad at Steve and he'll be in there. I'll just wear a fancy watch Tony gave me that marks how far I've gone, and then they'll be able to see that I did my bit. C'mon. We'll leave a note."

 **So I know I said I would update weekly, but last week was really too busy for that... I will try to stick to my schedule from now on. I promise. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the update! I was going to continue, but I think this is a good place to stop. Thanks for reading! If you like it, let me know. Also, if you have fanfiction recommendations, I'd love to hear them! (I would also love to read a story like this, so if you know of any, let me know!... I'm also not opposed to DC, Harry Potter, etc.)**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

Wanda left a note saying that the two of them were leaving, one that likely no one would see until they were finished with their own miles.

"Which way should we go?" Sienna asked when they left the compound. She had never been out before without being in a vehicle, and really didn't know the area.

"They would expect us to take the road, but there's a trail by the edge of the forest that could be more fun. I'll start my watch."

With that, both girls jogged off towards the trail Wanda had pointed out. It was a peaceful run, interrupted only by stumps and tree roots they needed to jump over.

Around the third mile, both of them decided to take a break. They sat down on a nearby log and enjoyed their view.

"I love forests." Sienna said, watching a squirrel rummage for food.

"It's nice to get out of the house, and get fresh air." Wanda agreed. "Well, we've been out together quite a few times, but always with another adult present. It's nice to go out without rules."

"Yeah. That's certainly a bonus." Sienna said. "What's with them and their rules anyways?"

"Rules create order or something like that. Also it helps for discipline when we're fighting things." Wanda replied, not entirely pleased with it, either.

"Well, order and discipline when fighting are two things I don't need, so I still don't get it."

"I think they're trying to keep you alive. And not get special treatment."

"Well I'm perfectly capable of keeping myself alive. But yeah I guess the special treatment thing makes sense." Sienna agreed. "You know, I think you're the only foster sibling- not that you're Steve's kid, but it's still a kind of family unit- I've ever had that I don't mind not getting special treatment from. I would feel bad if I got special treatment and you didn't. Or if we were treated differently for the same misdoing, like we were the other day with Clint."

She had a scowl on her face, but Wanda didn't focus on that. She was more astounded at what Sienna was saying.

"You aren't scared of me, and what I can do?"

"I don't particularly know what you can do, but no. I know you can move things with your mind and probably some other things, and you could hurt me if you wanted to, but I won't hold that against you unless you do try to hurt me."

Wanda started tearing up. "You have no idea how relieved that makes me. I promise to not break that trust of yours."

"I wasn't worried that you would." Sienna said simply.

Wanda wiped her eyes and stood up.

"This tracker knows how long we've stopped. We should get going before these miles don't count because we took too long of a break."

Sienna stood up, too, but was in shock. "Steve would say that our miles don't count if we stopped?"

"Maybe. Probably not in this circumstance, but I don't want to put that to the test. If you're running away from someone or something, you have to have the stamina to go for long periods of time."

"Alrighty then. Let's finish these last two miles."

SM

Wanda and Sienna had kept running away from the compound, and when they stopped two miles after their short break, they were tired, winded, and a long way from a bed or a shower or anything else that remotely resembled comfort.

"So now what do we do?" Sienna said, puffing and holding her chest, as if that would alleviate the pain.

"I'm too tired to go back right now." Wanda said, sitting down on the ground against a tree.

"If they let me do that again, I'll take special care to not hit you. At least not as much." Sienna said, vowing that she would always run with Wanda if she had to.

"That would be nice. I'll just have to remember to keep a sort of shield up on my back." Wanda said, moving a bit away from the tree and testing out a bit how to protect her back with her mind. She managed to get a weak shield up. "Try throwing something at my back now."

Sienna found a couple acorns and threw them at Wanda's back. They all bounced off.

"Well that's good to know for next time. You can shoot me all you want. I should be good, now." Wanda said, figuring out how to make it stronger. "I meant to ask, how did you manage to be so accurate? Or was it Clint shooting them?"

"No, it was me. My second foster home had a bunch of 7-10 year old boys. You learn how to defend and shoot. I'm not that accurate with any other piece of artillery, though."

"Well, I'm sure Clint could teach you accuracy with other things. Just for fun, of course." She said, winking.

"Yeah I'm not allowed to do any kind of training for anything other than self-protection." Sienna sighed, getting up.

"That's not always a bad thing. The job is dangerous. And it sucks, sometimes." Wanda said, thinking of her brother, and getting sad.

"I know. I just don't like being told I can't do things." Sienna sensed the girl's sadness, and decided to change the subject. "Well, I'm a flight risk, and we've been out long enough now, they'll know we're gone. We should probably find our way back."

"You're probably right." Wanda said, but then looked around. "Did we come from that way or that way?"

Neither of them knew. So, they picked the way they thought was the right one and started walking that way.

SM

Meanwhile, the others were doing their miles on the treadmills in the training room. Clint, Steve and Nat had joined them, so they could all talk while they did it.

"Has anyone seen Wanda? By my count, she had five miles to run." Clint said, looking around, while sitting on the floor.

"Can you even see anything down there?" Tony said, upset he was forced to run. "Go look for her."

Everyone was just about finished their miles at this point. Wanda would have to do hers on her own.

"She knows she's supposed to be here. I'm sure she's just talking with Sienna, putting it off." Clint said, not really wanting to get up.

Steve laughed. "I'll go find them. Tell Sienna she can come in here to talk if she wants to."

He left the room and headed for their bedrooms. When he couldn't find them in there, he searched the library, pool deck, and even quickly looked outside where new agents sometimes trained, but they were nowhere to be found.

"I'm just getting water for the others." Nat said, entering the room. "Have you found Wanda yet?"

"No, not yet, and I can't find Sienna either." Steve said, worriedly thinking of the flight risk he agreed to take in.

Nat came across the note on the counter. "I think I know why." She said, sliding the piece of paper over to him. "They've both gone on a run outside."

Steve breathed a sigh of relief. "Well at least they're together and doing the running."

"Yeah, I just wish they had run it past us, first." Nat agreed. "I know Wanda was probably upset at the miles, but not letting people know where you're going is dangerous."

"Yeah, I wish they asked us, too. I know Wanda knows better. But I also know she can defend herself against anything dangerous. I'll have a talk with them when they get back."

Nat took the water bottles back to the others and explained the situation to them.

"Little fireballs testing Cap, I see." Sam said, smiling. "Good thing we encouraged them to be together. Now we don't just have two teenagers, but two teenagers feeding off each other."

"Should I go look for them?" Vision asked, hoping Wanda was safe.

"No, let them come back on their own. They'll be less moody if they come back of their own free will instead of having us badger them." Tony said, although he was worried for their safety.

After they all got changed, they found Steve sitting in the living room, worriedly looking towards the door they would be coming through.

"Steve you have never looked more like a parent than you do right now. They're alright. I know it." Nat said, sitting beside him and putting a hand on his knee.

"They left an hour ago. And they don't know the area. What if they can't find their way back? What if they're lost?"

"They're probably just hanging out together. If they aren't back in another hour, I think we have reason to worry."

"I'm going to kill them." Steve said, letting his worry turn into anger. "They should have asked. And neither of them have really been off the compound before without one of us."

"Steve they're just exploring. And testing their limits." Rhodes said, coming into the room. "You see this everywhere. People seeing what they can and can't get away with. It may not even be a conscious decision. Wanda was probably just upset about the miles you assigned, and decided to do them in a place you wouldn't be. To her, she's following orders, but of her own accord. The two of them will probably do it many times."

"So you're saying I have to be more firm with the orders?" Steve asked.

"Both that and punish them, after explaining why, for this time." Rhodes said.

Steve leaned back, rubbing his eyes. He could be Captain America, and give those orders just fine, but he realized that teenagers were much harder to figure out than armies.

"C'mon Steve." Nat said, trying to reassure him. "They'll be back soon enough, and maybe if they're in good moods, you can just ground them to their rooms or something for the next couple of days."

"Why am I the only disciplinarian right now?" Steve asked, looking to Nat, who could and probably should also take charge.

"I'm not ready for that yet. And it wasn't directed at me specifically, so I don't have to do it." She said.

"It wasn't directly directed at me, either."

"Do you want one of us to do it, then?" Sam asked, really hoping Steve would say no.

"No, I can do it. I just don't want to."

"Yeah, well, you don't have to yet." Tony said, feeling for his friend. "I say if they aren't back by dinner, we should go looking for them. Give them more than that hour we suggested. If they're doing what Rhodey said they are, two total hours might not be enough.

Everyone agreed on that, and tensely waited for the teenagers for the rest of the afternoon. They never came.

SM

Sienna and Wanda had been walking for a while towards where they thought they were supposed to go, when they came across a river.

"I don't think we're going the right way." Said Wanda, having not seen that river before.

"Neither do I. But I'm so tired I think I need to rest my feet before we turn around again." Sienna said, sitting down and taking off her shoes.

"Want to swim?" Wanda inquired, thinking of how nice the cool water would be on her own feet.

"Sure!" Sienna said, never one for turning down an opportunity to swim. "I hope you don't mind, but I'm just going to wear my undergarments. I'd like to keep my clothes as dry as possible so it's not freezing walking back."

"That's a good plan." Wanda said, and they both stripped down, and jumped in.

"It's beautiful!" Sienna said, reveling in the coolness.

"It really is."

They swam like that for a bit before getting out and laying on a rock in the sun to dry.

"So I know this may be a touchy subject," Sienna began nervously, "but I don't know much about you... who you were before you were an Avenger."

"I don't talk about it much, but I guess I should tell you."

"You don't have to if you don't want to. I just wanted to get to know you better."

"It's alright. I'll tell you." And so Wanda told her of her family. Of how Tony's weapons had been what killed her parents, how she had gotten her powers, and of her brother. By the end, she was crying. "I felt it, when he died. I knew it right away and it tore me apart. He was my everything. My twin. You aren't supposed to be separated from your twin, but I was. And I miss him every day."

"I am so sorry. That all of that happened to you. As glad as I am that we met, I wish it didn't have to be that way."

"I know. And I wish I didn't have to know you by these circumstances, either." Wanda reiterated, remembering that the battle of New York had killed her parents.

"I guess it's only fair you hear my story, since I made you tell yours." Sienna said, turning onto her stomach, as she felt that her back needed to dry more. "It was actually the battle of New York that they died in."

"Yeah, they mentioned that at dinner. Steve and Nat noticed it on their headstones."

"I was hoping they wouldn't." Sienna sighed. "I know that means they might blame themselves. And I never once blamed the Avengers. Even before I knew them, I knew it wasn't their fault. When it-the battle that is-first happened, I was sent home from school, and I went into our house and turned on the news. I saw that the Asgardian Loki had let a bunch of robot monsters into the world, overtop of New York, and that the Avengers were doing everything to stop him. My parents were in the city that day in a meeting about their newest novel, and when I didn't hear from them, I assumed the worst. I was correct. A giant metal whale landed on their building. It took the city a week to come and deliver the bad news, since they had to clean up and find my parents in the first place, then identify them. In that time, I took all the cash we had in the house, put it in the bank under a pseudonym, and moved a bunch of the stuff I wanted out. Then social services came, and the bank bought the house, putting the money away in a new account until I turn 18, and I've been in foster care ever since. I did get to attend the funeral, though, which was kind of them."

"And you didn't blame the Avengers?" Wanda asked, still skeptical, and she knew the others would be as well."

"No. Like I said, it was Loki, not them, and the giant metal whale thing. They tried to stop it, and they saved a bunch of other people in the process. My first foster family, actually. They were good people, and I would have stayed with them for a while, but they had a family emergency, and had to leave the state, so I was flipped to another foster family, and they weren't great so I started running away and doing all that stuff that ended with me winding up with you guys. But, no, it wasn't the Avengers' fault."

"You may want to tell them that. I know they feel really bad about it. I think they blame themselves."

"I will. When we get back. If I remember."

By this point, they had dried off enough that they could put their clothes back on, and continue on.

"So... do you remember which way we came from?" Sienna asked Wanda, looking towards two ends of a path.

"No. Should we guess again?" Wanda asked, knowing how horrible the guess had been last time.

"No. I think I see footprints! We should go that way." And so Sienna and Wanda walked along the path they thought was the way they came.

It was, for the most part, until they mistakenly followed what they assumed was their footprints down a fork in the path that eventually led them to a small clearing and short waterfall.

"How do we keep getting this lost?" Wanda asked, knowing they had never seen a small waterfall or clearing before.

"I don't know. But I'm getting hungry, now."

"Yeah it's about 6 o'clock, I'm hungry too."

"Is there any way you can use your powers to find us a way out?" Sienna asked, wondering why she hadn't asked that before.

"If there is, I don't know how." Wanda said, wishing she knew how to control them fully.

"Alright. Well then I suggest we stop moving, so we don't get ourselves more lost." Sienna said, to which Wanda nodded. "Let's try and start a fire. Maybe someone will see the smoke and come rescue us."

"Do you know how to start a fire?" Wanda asked, having never started one on her own before.

"No, but it can't be too hard. I've seen it on TV before."

Sienna was wrong. It was very hard. It took them about an hour and a half and by the time they were finished, they were starving.

"I don't know what's safe and not safe to eat around here." Sienna said, looking at the berries nearby.

"I think we should just ignore the hunger pains and rest." Wanda suggested, "they'll have noticed we're gone by now and will probably come looking for us."

SM

When the girls didn't come back by the latest time they ever ate, 7, they devised a plan to go looking for them. They checked all their external cameras to see which way they went, and when they found it, Steve and Vision followed the trail. They came back about 30 minutes later having found nothing.

"What are we going to do?" Rhodes asked, voicing the worry everyone was feeling.

"We aren't going to call search and rescue, because that'll have us inspected by child services, but we're going to conduct a search on our own." Steve said, turning into a captain, again. "We'll divide the forest into sections. Look as far as we can. They've been gone long enough they could have wandered quite far from here, or they're just lost and close by. Scan everywhere for heat signals. Anyone who can fly in their suit, suit up, Clint, Nat and I will take a jet."

"Friday, divide up the field for us." Tony said, clicking things on his watch, while running to where his suits were kept.

"On it sir." The AI responded, quickly figuring out the best trajectory based on everyone's abilities.

"All coms are on, Cap. Whenever they're found, we'll let everyone else know." Rhodes said, standing in position for the war machine suit to enclose him.

"Roger that. See you all soon, I hope." Steve said, climbing into a jet, and gearing it up for takeoff.

Steve set out as soon as he could, setting up the heat detector in his jet, and flying to his designated area.

SM

"Maybe walking when we didn't know which way to go wasn't the best idea." Sienna said, wishing they had just stayed where they were.

"But we didn't know we would get lost." Wanda pointed out, and Sienna knew she was right.

"Maybe they're coming to look for us." Sienna said, hopeful.

"Or maybe that note means they aren't going to come until it gets much darker, and who knows how far away we are. They may not find us tonight."

"Well what do you suggest we do? Keep walking?" Sienna said, getting aggravated. "I know it could just get us more lost, but I desperately want out of this forest.

"Maybe we're close to civilization. They can help us. Someone can call the police, or drive us to the compound." Wanda said, trying to stay level headed.

"We can't go to the police." Sienna said with finality. "If we do, they'll look me up, and I could get taken back to juvi for running away. That may not have been what we were doing, but they aren't going to trust my word. Then, I'll probably be in there until I'm 18. I would much rather actually be on the run until then."

"Okay, no cops. But we still need to find a way out." Wanda said as her stomach grumbled.

"I know. I'm hungry too. But I suck at tracking things and I've never been in this forest before to even have a clue which way is north."

"Oh! Why didn't I think of that before?" Wanda exclaimed, pushing buttons on the bracelet that tracked her distance. "There's a compass in this thing. Lets you know which way you're going while you run. I wish it could just point us to where the compound is, but heading North is a start."

Sienna walked over and looked at the watch. "It says North is this way." Sienna pointed towards a part of the forest. "It doesn't have a path, but I will gladly create a new path if it means we get out of here."

"I'll put out the fire." Wanda said, trapping the fire in a hold and sucking the oxygen out of it. "There. Let's go."

They followed the compass North, having to reroute themselves a couple times due to small ponds. It was a slow and tedious task, but they managed to get decently far until they hit a river.

"The world is against us finding civilization." Sienna said, slumping down to the edge of the riverbank when she looked either way, and saw by the moonlight that it went on for quite a while.

"I may be able to fix this." Wanda said, waving up her hands and creating a small spot in front of the two of them that the water was going around. "Hold onto me, and follow as closely as you can. Our shoes may get muddy, but I should be able to create a small path for the two of us."

"Okay." Sienna held on and followed as close as she could to Wanda, and the both stepped in the muddy, albeit water-free, spot in the river.

Sienna could tell it was taking a lot out of Wanda to not break her concentration, so she didn't say a thing, just moved at the same time Wanda did.

That was, until they were three quarters of the way through the river, and they heard a voice above them.

"What the hell are you two doing?" With that, Wanda's concentration broke, and the water came rushing up around them. It reached their waists. Looking up, Wanda saw that it was Sam above them.

"We _were_ trying to keep dry as we crossed the river." Wanda said, frustrated with herself for breaking her concentration. "Why couldn't you wait a couple more minutes?"

"Well I'm sorry for finding you." Sam said, coming down, grabbing their outstretched hands and lifting them to the other side. "Can't you lift things with your mind? Can you not move yourself that way?"

"I wasn't sure if I could do it with her, so I figured out the next best thing." Wanda snapped at him, "that is, until you showed up."

"Listen little girl, you better watch your mouth. You guys are already in enough trouble." Neither girl wanted to retort to that, so he continued. "Where were you even going in the first place?"

"We were lost." Sienna said.

"Obviously. But why not stay put?"

"We were going North. We'd hit civilization eventually that way, and call you. We weren't sure you guys would come looking."

"You obviously don't know a lot about us, then." Sam said. "On that note, I should let them know I found you, and have the closest jet come pick us up. 'Guys, I found them. Friday has the coordinates. Can someone in a jet pick us up? I can't carry them back that far with this suit, and they're both very wet, so they would probably appreciate a heated transport.'"

He listened with his finger on his ear, then nodded. "We're quite far out, you guys are very good at getting lost. Steve will be here in 10."

Both girls nodded, and Sienna sat down, trying to keep herself warm unsuccessfully.

"I might be able to focus enough to get the water out of your clothes." Wanda offered, thinking about doing the same thing to herself.

Sienna nodded, being dry would be nice. Sam interjected. "You haven't been able to focus on something that precise before, and I don't want you accidentally flinging her leg off. Steve will be here soon. You both can warm up then."

Wanda sat down beside Sienna and together they waited, trying to get warm. Steve was hovering over them in less time than they thought had been 10 minutes, and Sam took each of them up into the back hatch as quickly as possible, wrapping them both in blankets, and sitting in between them, rubbing their arms to create friction as Steve took off.

"You two okay?" Steve asked from the pilot's seat.

"Yeah, just a cold, wet, and hungry." Sienna said sarcastically.

"I meant physically. You aren't injured?" Steve kept his tone light, although he didn't appreciate her tone.

"No, we're fine. Feet hurt from walking." Sienna said again.

"Okay, good."

SM

It was a five-minute flight away, which was shocking to both girls. They had gone quite far.

"How far did we go?" Sienna asked, feeling that they were going quite fast. Probably as close to the top speed as possible. Steve seemed worried that they were still shivering despite the blankets.

"About 20 miles from the compound, but I don't know how far you actually walked, considering you weren't going in a direct angle from the compound." Steve said.

"Wow. How'd we manage that?" Sienna asked, looking at Wanda.

"I don't know." Wanda said.

"Well, you've been moving since just after lunch, and it's now almost 10, so it makes sense that you've gone that far, especially if you were running for the first 5." Steve calculated that in his head, and figured it actually did make sense, despite the fact that they hadn't run in a direct line away from the compound. "It took us quite a while to find you, because none of us thought you could have gone out as far as you did."

When they landed, Nat and Pepper, who had come back from her meeting for Stark Industries while they were all out, came rushing on board with blankets and towels.

They wrapped the girls up as tightly as they could, and then Steve and Sam picked them up to put them by a fire.

"I've made soup." Clint said, coming in with bowls. Both girls took them appreciatively and ate them both as quickly as they could.

All the men were made to leave the room as Wanda and Sienna were helped into some dry pajamas, all the while staying by the fire to keep warm.

Both girls had stopped shivering a couple minutes into being by the fire, but neither complained about the special treatment they were getting. The last thing Sienna remembers was sitting on the couch, listening to the others talk.

She woke up at 4:30 the next day, which was basically sleeping in as far as sleeping in would get for her, unless under special circumstances. She didn't feel like doing anything, though, so she walked out to the farthest living room from any bedroom, and turned the TV on low.

She had barely watched TV since coming to live with the Avengers, so she didn't really know what to watch, but something on the SPACE channel caught her eye, so she started that.

She was so enthralled in the show, which she now knew to be Supernatural, and was in a marathon mode, that she didn't notice it was almost 7 before Clint walked in.

"You aren't in your usual spot today." He remarked.

"Shh… something's happening." She said as someone was shot before commercial break. "Now, yes?"

"I _said_ , you aren't in your usual spot this morning. I'm actually shocked to see you watching TV. The only other times I've seen you do that is when Tony leant you his cell phone, and when you watch documentaries with Steve."

"I didn't feel up to anything this morning, so I thought I'd try it out. But it's more stressful and therefore more work than reading would have been."

"What are you watching?" He asked.

"Supernatural."

"Okay, well I'll leave you to it, for now." He said, leaving the room.

Two more episodes later, Nat came in. "You're wanted in the kitchen."

"What for? I'm not hungry." Sienna said, not taking her eyes off the screen until Nat shut it off. "Hey! I was watching that." But she cut off when she noticed the stance Nat was in.

She was standing with her arms crossed, one arm holding the remote, looking upset.

"I know. You're rarely ever hungry. But you are supposed to eat. And after yesterday, we need to make sure you do."

"Ugh, fine." Sienna said, rolling her eyes as she stood up.

"Mind the attitude." Nat said curtly, putting the remote down and following Sienna out of the living room.

Sienna, who couldn't be seen, rolled her eyes again, but didn't say anything. She couldn't understand why adults would always say that. It wasn't attitude, she it was annoyance.

She jumped up on the bar stool in the kitchen when she entered it, and noticed Steve was making eggs on the stove. He put a plate and a fork in front of her and she ate everything on it. They were getting used to her portion size and were thankfully only ever giving her how much she could handle, and adjusting as they felt fit.

When she finished, she put the plate in the sink in front of her, and jumped off the stool, meaning to head towards the living room again, when Steve spoke up.

"Stay here, please." She stopped short, and turned around, her eyebrow up.

"Is everything okay?"

"I wanted to talk to you and Wanda, and I would prefer you stayed around for it."

"Okay." Sienna said, assuming what he had to talk to her about wouldn't be good.

Wanda walked in sleepily with Nat on her tail, and sat beside Sienna, putting one arm up on the counter and resting her head in her palm.

"Tired after that long day?" Steve asked, putting a plate of breakfast in front of her, too.

"Yeah. Thanks." Wanda said, picking up the fork and gradually putting the food into her mouth.

Sienna sat on her hands, rocking back and forth, looking from Steve to Nat to Wanda.

"So…" Sienna started, looking to Steve, who was standing with his arms crossed. She didn't say anything more, seeing the look he gave her in response to that one word.

Wanda, who hadn't noticed anything strange about Nat and Steve standing there due to her tiredness, looked up at Sienna's pronouncement and put her fork down, now interested.

"Finish your breakfast." Nat said pointedly at her.

"But-"

"Just do it, Wanda." Steve sighed, and she continued eating halfheartedly until she was finished.

Steve put her plate in the sink before speaking. "We need to talk about what happened yesterday."

"What about it?" Wanda asked, confused as to why they would need to talk. She'd never been in trouble for getting lost accidentally.

"Why don't we start with leaving without permission, without leaving on the note which way you were going, why you thought running into the forest instead of the road that leads here was a good idea, and why you didn't stay put when you realized you were lost." Steve said, looking between each of them with each added thing on the list.

Both girls gulped. He was rather calm, but his body language radiated anger.

"Well…"

 **This is where I'm ending it because I'm really freaking tired and I have to sleep but it's been so long since I last uploaded that I have to do it tonight. School is really kicking my butt so I'll try to have updates once a week to once every other week, but there's no guarantees.**

 **Anyways, hope you enjoyed! Also, I have two questions; 1) what's your favourite Marvel show? Mine's Agent Carter. 2) Should they just be grounded? Or more? Let me know what you think!**

 **I've stalked the majority of you guys and I've found stories to read through your likes, but if you have recommendations, I'm all ears! Let me know :)**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

"Well..." Sienna said, trying to come up with good excuses for those questions.

"Yes? I'm waiting." Steve said, looking between the two of them.

"We left because I was mad you were making us run miles." Wanda said, and Sienna interjected to try and alleviate the excuse.

"Because I was just doing it for fun! I never thought there would be any repercussions! And then I went with her because I felt guilty you were making her run because of me."

"We didn't get permission because that would have meant talking to you, and I didn't want to do that. We didn't know which way we were going, but we knew the road would be the first place you would check, so we decided against that." Wanda blurted out.

Steve and Nat said nothing but waited for them to continue.

"And we didn't realize we were lost for a while. We ran the five miles, then sat down for a rest, and forgot which way we had come, so we picked which way we thought was right, but we were wrong. So we turned back but that's when we got even more lost so we decided to stay put and make a fire. But we also didn't know if you would come looking for us so we thought it would be best to go North, once Wanda remembered there was a compass on her tracker bracelet thing."

"Is that it?" Steve asked, raising one eyebrow. They both nodded. "So let me get this straight. You guys risked your lives, and endangered yourselves, all because you had to run five miles?"

"We just got accidentally lost! That's not our fault! We just planned on running the miles and coming back!" Sienna exclaimed, which got her an angry look shot her way.

"All because you wanted to test your limits, and defy my direct orders. You deliberately chose to run outside and in the forest-a place neither of you has explored before-all so you wouldn't have to deal with me, because I angered you. Well let me tell you, by doing this, you've angered and made all of us worried, which is a whole lot bigger than your initial feelings!" Steve was shouting at this point and both girls were taken aback. He calmed his tone down, again. "If you had kept your back open like that in the field, Wanda, you could have been seriously injured or worse. Paralysis or death is much worse than miles, and those are things you can't just hide from. It was just supposed to be a gentle reminder that you have to keep your back covered, but instead the two of you turn it into an outing plotted directly against us finding you were you in actual trouble."

"I'm sorry, Steve. I didn't think about it like that." Wanda said, looking down.

"Did you think about it at all?" Nat asked, speaking up for the first time. "Did you think about the dangers of running into an unknown forest, or even what the repercussions here would be when you returned? Surely you didn't think we would just let it slide so long as you did the miles?"

"No, I didn't think about those things..." Wanda trailed off.

"And did you really believe we wouldn't come looking for you?" Nat asked, turning to Sienna.

"No one typically does if I go running apart from the police, and that's just their job. I was away for a week once before one of the homes noticed I was gone and called the police."

"You have to stop comparing us to those other places. You should know by now that we don't want you to go, and that we like you enough. We actually like you more than enough, but you should at least understand that we would never let either of you stay out all night without looking for you unless you had previously planned to do so."

"Yeah, I guess."

Steve moved from against the counter, and put one hand under each girl's chin, forcing them to look at him. He looked between them, and said, "we care deeply about both of you, and we never would do anything that isn't for your own good. Whether it's making you run miles as a reminder to keep your back covered, or searching for you when you're missing, we will always have your best interests at heart. Got it?"

"Yes sir." Wanda said, to which Sienna echoed with just a yes.

"Alright, so now that we've covered that, it's time to talk about your punishment."

"What!?" Sienna exclaimed, standing up. She was not expecting there to be much more of a punishment on top of being chastised and caught in the cold. "But we were punished! The 5 miles were hers and I took them on, too, and then we were lost for hours, couldn't eat even though we were hungry, got wet, nearly froze despite it being summer, and were just yelled at by you two!"

"You can't expect us to let this slide without some repercussions?"

"We've had them! She just mentioned them all!" Wanda yelled, getting as frustrated as Sienna was at the situation.

"Would both of you lower your voices and speak respectfully to us, please? We have thought long and hard about this and we all agree that you deserve this." Steve said, crossing his arms, once again.

"You can't expect us to be respectful when you're telling us we deserve something we don't." Sienna said, trying to take out any hostility in her voice.

"We just agreed that you were in the wrong, and I know you feel as though you were punished, but we do not feel it was sufficient, and, as we are responsible for the two of you, what we say will be how it goes."

"This is so unfair." Sienna said, under her breath, but the supersoldier serum had advanced Steve's hearing, and he had heard it.

"I'm sorry you feel that way." He said, calmly. "But this is how it goes."

Both girls huffed in frustration.

"You will spend the next three days in your rooms except for meals and training, and even then there will be no stalling while you eat or while you train."

"You can't lock me in my room! I can just get us out of it." Wanda said, and Sienna spoke up.

"You're making us stay in our rooms because we got lost? This is total BS!"

"Listen, I know you're angry but you will not take that tone of voice with me. And you don't threaten to use your powers against me. You know better than that." Steve said, letting the anger take over his tone a bit.

"We've told you why you're getting punished, so stop saying we're punishing you for what we aren't. You're big girls and you need to take responsibility for your actions." Nat said, which only angered the two of them further.

"The two of you are being so damn patronizing!" Sienna yelled, not appreciating being called a "big girl" at all.

"I'm 18, you can't keep telling me what to do!" Wanda retorted at the same time, knowing full well they could, they would, and that it was better than being on her own. But she didn't have to like it.

"You know what? I'm sick of your attitudes. I was being lenient with your punishment but I won't be anymore. You're old enough to realize there could have been more serious outcomes, and to know that letting people know where you're going to go is a must. Especially in our line of work." Steve was fuming at this point. "Wait for me in your rooms."

Both girls were going to retort, but it was at that precise moment that Vision came in. "Whatever you're going to say will just make it worse. Come along now."

He stood, gesturing with his arm to head towards their room, and both girls followed his suggestion, accepting the proclamation as it didn't come from someone who wanted them in trouble.

SM

As soon as the girls were out of the kitchen, Steve turned to Nat. "Why did they have to make that harder than it needed to be? They were just going to be grounded."

"Because they're teenage girls who need to dig themselves into holes." Said Nat, feeling sorry for Steve, but happy she had opted out of doling out punishments for a while.

Just then, the rest of the team, save Vision, walked into the kitchen, like the cowards that they are.

"Nice of you guys to finally show up and give us some backup." Nat said, crossing her arms.

"Yeah. Nat doesn't even want to dole out the punishments but she was here for emotional support." Steve said, knowing full well that it was probably better that they didn't have more people against the girls.

"You know Cap, we heard what happened. More people ganging up on them would have escalated the situation." Rhodes said, not sorry in the slightest that he missed the argument. He didn't want to be disciplinarian, and would leave it up to the leader of the team for as long as he could.

"Alright, well what do we do now? I tried to reason with them, and they just wouldn't see it." Steve asked, really hoping they didn't say what he knew they would.

"Cap, I hate to say it, but corporal punishment works." Tony said, fully willing to suggest it as a punishment if he didn't have to be the one to dole it out. "It deters behaviour, and they have to know that attitude like that won't be tolerated."

Steve sighed and bowed his head. "I had a feeling you were going to say that. I guess I better go in there and get it over with."

"Wait," Clint said, and for a second Steve thought that he would say he didn't have to do it, that there was another option. "They only just left a couple minutes ago, and they were both pretty angry when they did. You would be better off to leave them for a half hour, maybe let them think about what happened, and hopefully think about what they did wrong."

"You're probably right about that." Steve said, and then looked around for something to do in the meantime.

"Why don't we turn on the news? See if there's an emergency that needs our help. We haven't stopped being Avengers, despite the new addition to the family." Sam said, loving the title.

"Yeah and I've been hearing some rumblings that Rumlow is popping up again. We need to find him and stop him before he does any kind of damage." Nat said, walking towards the living room with Sam to watch the news.

Eventually, all of them except for Steve had left the kitchen, and he was left listening to the news from the next room over, while he stared at the clock, willing himself to figure out the best way to calm the situation down so the punishment wouldn't escalate again.

After the suggested thirty minutes, he begrudgingly began his way to their bedrooms. As much as he didn't want to punish them in this way, he knew he had to. For their safety, and to make sure they realized that their behaviour was unacceptable.

He sighed, as he knocked then opened Sienna's bedroom, "Sienna, could you come with me to Wanda's room, please? I need to talk to the both of you." Wisely, she obeyed without argument, but with a sour look on her face, and got up off the bed she had been sitting on, to follow him as he knocked and entered Wanda's room.

SM

Earlier, as Vision had been escorting the girls back to their rooms, they spoke up again about how unfair they thought it was, both girls bristling as they had honestly felt like they had been punished sufficiently out in the forest.

"Vis, don't you think that was enough of a punishment? Being starved for about 10 hours and being stuck in the cold?" Wanda asked, knowing the AI would take her side.

But, he surprised her. "Actually, no. And I'm surprised Captain Rogers waited so long to dole out punishments like he is. When we went out looking for you initially yesterday, he was so mad. I think if he had found you on our little run out he would have found a log and pulled the two of you over his knee right there."

"And maybe we would have deserved it then, because we wouldn't have been punished really. Just a little bit of hunger. But we weren't." Wanda retorted, and Vision could see he wouldn't be able to change her mind about this.

"At any rate, you do not get to decide your punishment. No one does. And I suggest you comply with Captain Rogers when he comes in to see you. You don't want to escalate the situation even more."

With that, he opened Wanda's door, lightly pushed her in, and closed it behind her, and then proceeded to do the same with Sienna.

While Wanda was well versed in knowing the rules, and that she should have been more respectful with the others, Sienna did not subdue in her room.

She had rarely gotten in trouble in her first thirteen years of life, and the last few contained very few adults who cared to correct her behaviour, or her attitude. Had she not agreed with something her foster parents said, she would yell, they would yell back, and then typically she wouldn't be punished, just transferred within the week.

But this was new territory for her. They kept saying they wanted to keep her, and then instead of just letting it go, they did something about it. It kind of infuriated Sienna. Why couldn't they be like her other foster homes? At least then she'd be able to navigate the waters and know what to expect.

She grew more and more frustrated by the second as she realized she really was no longer in control of her life. Until she was 13, her and her parents had had more of a friend relationship with her, and barely needed to right her, then after that, it went downhill, but Sienna grew used to being able to depend on herself, and no one else. And now, she didn't know what to expect, nor could she make any decisions freely, and it pissed her off.

She knew she needed space as soon as possible, to get her mind right again, and feel more in control, but she had no idea when she would be able to get away from these people. They had cameras, muscles, and the means to find people. All that didn't help her in her ideas on how to leave.

Sienna stewed in her own bitterness for the next half hour, getting more frustrated at the whole situation.

Somehow, she had forgotten for those moments what the punishments were in the house, and forgot that being disrespectful was a sure way to get on anyone's bad side.

So, when Steve walked into the room, asking her to go to Wanda's, the only thing keeping her from talking back to him was knowing, or rather, hoping, that Wanda would back her up.

However, upon entering Wanda's room, she saw that her sour expression and mental hostility was not matched by the other teen, but rather she looked guilty and sad.

"Sienna, please sit on the bed with Wanda. We're going to talk."

"No."

"Excuse me?" Steve said, out of shock. Surely he couldn't have heard her right.

"No." She repeated again, and he could not deny it.

"And why not?" Steve asked, crossing his arms over his chest. He would not tolerate much more resistance from either of them today.

"Because I can see that she won't back me up, probably because she's afraid of you, but you know what? I'm not. And I'm not going to let you chastise the two of us and punish us or whatever it is you plan on doing. We made our decision yesterday in the forest, we regretted it, Mother Nature sufficiently punished us for it, and then to top it off, you already chastised us for it. There is no more that needs to be said, no more that needs to be done. I know you haven't been a foster father for long, but that's where it ends with them. They don't act like you are right now, they don't care. Why can't you be more like them? I understood that system. That made sense. This? This isn't the norm in the system."

She paused, and looked defiantly at him, crossing her arms, too.

"Are you done?" Steve asked, raising an eyebrow, not changing his tone from before. He was quite mad, but he was going to let her dig her own grave.

"I've said all I can think to say." Sienna said, as her mind was quite jumbled, and she couldn't think straight as to explain her frustration any further.

"Then sit on the bed."

"I thought we went over why that wasn't happening." Sienna said.

Steve didn't reply. He merely noted all the outbursts and the disrespectful attitude in his head, and would have a conversation with her privately about all of it soon.

He walked up to her, but she held her ground. Arms crossed, fire in her eyes. The one thing she didn't have, though, was strength to overpower him, and he easily turned her around, swatted her behind a couple times, then made her sit on the bed.

"You move from that spot before I say you can, you will be listening to my entire talk over my knee. And that's before what's actually coming."

Completely placated, Sienna didn't move a muscle. Wanda, on the other hand, was completely shocked. At both Sienna's outburst, and Steve's retort. She hadn't known Steve to ever act like that, but she guessed Sienna had pushed him to his limits. She made a mental note to never do that.

"Alright. Now that I have your attention, I would like to address some things. And I would prefer it if all your yelling and arguing is saved for the end." Both girls nodded, and Steve sighed a little. "Alright. Well firstly, I know we've spoken about this already, but I feel like you may have forgotten. When you left without permission, and without letting anyone know where you were going, or how long you thought you'd be gone, you put your lives in danger. I know Wanda could have protected the two of you to a certain degree, but you are still at risk, no matter your capabilities. Plus, had you given us an amount of time you would be gone, we could have come looking for you much sooner, and without the need to miss supper."

Wanda interrupted then, despite Steve's previous request. "But would you have let us go?"

"Wanda." Steve said, and it was the only rebuke he needed for her to get quiet again. "Secondly, you going off like that was for no other reason than because you were upset about being punished, and so you punished us in return. The five miles were as a reminder that leaving your back open can have serious consequences, and before even arguing against them, you decided you knew what was best for yourselves. Thirdly, when you figure out you are lost, it is not advisable to continue moving. Especially if you are only about an hour out. Vision and I could have probably found you just by running out. Fourthly, I know Wanda knows this better than you do Sienna, but we have mentioned this before, and we will not tolerate disrespectfulness, and your demonstration in the kitchen and then again in here was just that.

Now we were only going to ground you if you took it well, because that's something we all decided was fit, but you did not. The two of you were both disrespectful, and accusatory, and that, along with the initial running away, increased the punishment. I am very disappointed in the route you decided to take about completing the miles, and very disappointed with the way you handled yourselves afterwards. You are both old enough to know right from wrong, and I know that you, Wanda, know to not do things out of spite. I know your recent upbringing, Sienna, has been a little different than maybe would have been normal in your old home, but in this one, we talk about things, and apply correction as necessary. This is one of those times. Now, you may raise any points that you wish about this, but keep in mind that you are already in trouble for being disrespectful."

Steve finished his speech to the silent teenagers, and waited for them to process his words, and come back with their retorts.

"Would you have let us run outside if we had asked to?" Wanda asked, rephrasing her question from before.

"Maybe. I don't know what I would have said yesterday, it would have depended on factors such as how you asked and the reasoning you gave. If I deemed it acceptable, probably. Maybe I would have had Vision go with you, because apart from flying through things, you guys seem to butt heads less than the rest of us do."

Wanda, being well versed in the art of negotiating out of punishments, took the lead while Sienna stayed silent. "But don't you think a week of being grounded is a little long for what we did?"

"Don't you think death or paralysis is worse than a week of confinement? Which, by the way, would have been the punishment on not just you, but all of us, had you left your back open in the field." Steve retorted, and his two charges fell silent, thinking about what he said.

Neither had any other objections, so Steve spoke up again. "Okay, Sienna go wait in my room. It's not fair to have people listening. Wanda is first."

She may not have had any objections to what Steve was saying, but she objected to what she knew was about to happen, so she spoke up at this. "No! This is total bullshit and you know it. She's an adult who can make her own mistakes and learn from them herself, and I'm just a foster kid! You don't get to treat us as if we're anything but that."

"Sienna. You need to calm down. You're making this worse for yourself. You need to understand that adults face consequences just like children, sometimes coming from the people closest to them. And I'm not like other foster parents. You'll learn that eventually, but until then, I will remind you. Now, please head to my room so you give Wanda some privacy."

"Ugh, I hate you!"

"I'm sorry to hear that." He said, ushering Sienna out of the room. "Go to my room and wait in a corner for me to get there."

Sienna was lightly pushed towards the direction which would eventually lead her to Steve's room, and she walked off, crying out of anger.

Steve closed the door and turned to Wanda. "Now, I suspect you know what you did wrong? Wanda nodded. "I thought so. You've also been fighting me a lot less than she was, which is part of the reason why I sent her to the furthest bedroom I could. Your punishment will most likely take less time, because there's a lot less to explain, and a lot less to discipline for."

"But Steve, it's not fair if we aren't punished the same way!" Wanda exclaimed, knowing full well Sienna would be getting a longer punishment.

"Wanda, both of you have earned a spanking, but she has exceeded the level of insubordination that I will tolerate. She has been constantly berating, yelling and attacking me and I cannot let that slide." Steve said, patiently, while sitting on her bed. "Now, no more about her. She is not the only one in trouble here. You were reckless and rude, and you know that those are things I will not tolerate. Come here, please."

"But Steve," Wanda said, putting her hands up and backing up out of the reach of his arm. "You were just going to ground us for not asking before we went outside. Can't you just do that?"

"I am. You will serve out a week in your room, instead of the initial three days, as well as this spanking."

"What? You can't do that!" Wanda exclaimed, genuinely shocked by this.

"Well the offenses are as follows, loosely. One." He held up his index finger, "the initial forest run. And two, the attitude and backtalk. Two offenses that built off each other to get this."

"But Steve..." Wanda trailed off, starting to cry before anything happened, and no longer being able to talk.

Steve got up and walked over to her, pulling her into a hug. "I won't lose you." He said, still hugging her, "and if this is how you're going to react when I punish you, the same as I punished everyone else, then we'll end up here more often than I think either of us would like."

He pulled back then, and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Okay, lets get this over with."

She didn't resist as he pulled her over to the bed and sat down, pulling her over his lap.

"I don't need to lecture you any more, do I?" Steve asked, hoping against all hope he didn't, as he felt as though he had repeated this lecture more than he had wished to in the past hour.

"No, I understand. I will try to be respectful when I'm talking to you, and I won't do things out of spite anymore."

"That's right." Steve said, and raised his arm. The swats came fast and hard, and Wanda was in no way prepared for them, despite the fact that she had the protection of her pants and she knew they were coming. Steve was starting harder than he had ever before.

Wanda, who had been crying before it started, continued to cry throughout, only begging Steve to stop. At 30 swats, he lifted her a little with the arm that had been holding her in place, and pulled her pants down, then continued the spanking.

They remained in this position for a couple minutes, Steve steeling his heart against her pleas and promises to do better. Finally, he lifted her once more, pulled her underwear down to join her pants, and said, "we're almost finished here. Please don't make me repeat this lesson again. At least not anytime soon."

He looked down at the young bottom before him and saw that it was a very deep shade of red. He had a number of 20 in his head as to what was left of her punishment, but didn't dare say that out loud in case he decided to stop early. Wanda, at losing her underwear, released any stoicism she had left, and wept.

He focused the first ten swats all along the center of her bottom, then lifted his leg a little to get a better angle at her sit spots. "Last few." He said, and spanked under each cheek five times before finally finishing.

It had only been an ordeal of about five minutes, but Wanda kept crying even though it was over, and let Steve rub her back to help calm her down. When she finally got her breathing under control, he gently reached down, pulled her underwear back up to allow her some decency, then flipped her back up onto her feet.

She had been on her feet all of two seconds before she flung herself at him, still muttering her apologies.

"It's alright. All is forgiven now. It's behind us." Steve reassured her, holding her in his arms and whispering in her ear.

They stayed in this position for a couple minutes before her breathing began to even out, and Steve looked down to see that her eyelids were fighting to stay open.

"Go to sleep Wanda. We'll wake you for lunch. I have to go deal with Sienna, now."

He got up with her in his arms and gently placed her onto her stomach back on her bed.

"Steve?" Wanda said in a tired tone before she fell asleep.

"Yeah?" He looked back from her doorway, worried.

"Don't be too hard on her." Wanda said, fighting to stay awake to hear his response.

"She won't get any more than she deserves." He replied, and gently closed the door behind him.

SM

When Sienna was sent out and gently pushed towards Steve's room, she was still fuming.

She didn't want to go back and wait in his room, and so she decided she wouldn't. She walked right past the room she knew to be his, and headed towards a different door. She opened it up and found a stairwell, which she went up. Up the stairs, she found a single door. Opening it, she saw it was a bedroom. Probably Clint's, based on the height factor.

Not really wanting to stay there, in case he came up, she went back down the stairs, heading further down the hallway.

She was down a couple hallways at this point, and hadn't seen anyone. She felt quite lucky over that, but didn't count her chickens before they hatched. If she kept moving, she'd surely run in to someone eventually.

So, she looked to her left, and saw a glass door with machine parts and large tables and what looked like Iron Man Suits behind other, opaque, glass. She tried the door, and found it to be open.

Upon entering what she's deduced to be Tony's workspace, she heard a voice.

"I like to stay out of this kind of business, but I do believe Captain Rogers has advised you to stay in his room, and not play around in here." The female voice said, and Sienna guessed that that was Veronica, or Friday, or whoever Tony's AI was. She had briefly heard the others speak of her, but hadn't really had a conversation with her yet.

"Well Captain Rogers," she said mimicking the way the AI spoke, "was annoying me."

"I understand that, but I have found that the others do well when they obey what he says." She responded again, in her monotone voice.

"Well, good for them." Sienna said, walking distractedly over to the Iron Man suits.

She reached up to touch them, and the AI spoke again. "I do not believe you have permission to be in here, and especially not permission to touch those suits, so I would like you to leave them alone, please."

Sienna put her hand down, sensing that the AI would somehow have her forcibly removed. She turned around and walked over to a weapon that was on the table, not knowing it was one, and picked it up.

"What does this do?" She asked aloud, hoping for a response.

"Hurts people. Please put that down." She returned, keeping a close watch on her. She had just alerted Captain Rogers of where the girl was, and was hoping to keep her alive long enough for him to come get her.

"But how do you work it?" Sienna said, moving it around in her hands, inspecting it. She saw a button she suspected would fire it, and turned to find something to point at.

At that point, it was removed from her hands by a robotic arm thing, and she was whisked back by another as someone exclaimed "hey!"

Sienna looked over, and paled. Steve was stalking toward her, looking furious. She was going to be killed and then kicked out of the house.

"What do you think you're doing?" Steve asked, grabbing her arm, and pulling her out of the grip of the robot. "Are you trying to get yourself killed? Or taken away?"

"I just wanted to see how it worked." Sienna said in a small voice.

"Well, once you were told it hurt people, you should have put it down. Weapons aren't toys. I don't know why Tony has it in here, but that's besides the point." Steve pushed her out of the room and made a statement to the AI. "Sienna is not to be in here without explicit permission from myself or Tony. Please keep the door locked to her from now on."

"Of course, Captain Rogers."

Steve then started walking back towards his room, pulling Sienna along, his grip was not too tight, but was one she wouldn't have been able to break out of, anyways.

"I can't believe you ran again. I told you to stay in my room!" Steve yelled, and, despite her protestations over the punishment, she wished she had done as he said. "And you go and endanger yourself? Unbelievable."

At this point, he was in front of his door, so he opened it and pushed her inside.

"Stand in the corner. I need to cool off before I deal with you." He said, bringing her to a corner and leaving her there.

"But Steve," Sienna said, turning around. She wanted to be able to explain herself.

He turned her back and gave her a quick warning swat.

"Stay. Here." He said, and she heard him walk to his bathroom and turn on the taps.

She wasn't sure the exact amount of time she spent in the corner, but it seemed to be quite a long time before he returned.

"Come on out, Sienna." He said, in a much calmer tone than the last thing he had said to her.

Suddenly, though, Sienna no longer felt like coming out of the corner. It was stupid and made her feel like she was a child again, but it was safe.

"Please don't make me come and get you. Again." He said, emphasizing the word.

She turned around and saw him sitting on his bed. She started walking towards him, but was startled when he pat the spot next to him on the bed, instead of making her stand in front of him like Pepper had.

"Before we get this over with, I want to talk." He said.

"Okay." Sienna said, wanting nothing more than to prolong her impending doom.

"This has been something I've been struggling with for a while now, with you. And I need you to be completely honest with me about it." Sienna was worried but nodded her head. "I know you said you were never really punished by your parents, and from what I can tell based on your reaction to getting this one, your old foster homes didn't take this part of raising children seriously. But I want to know- no. I need to know if any of the men or women in those houses ever..."

His trailing off left Sienna puzzled, and her face gave away her confusion. "This is hard to say, and I know it would be hard to admit, but you have my word that what I'm about to bring up would ever happen to you here, you are safe. Okay?"

"Okay." Sienna said, still really confused.

"Were you ever sexually assaulted in those other homes or abused in any way?" He blurted, looking at her intensely, as if he would be able to gauge her reaction and get his answer without her needing to say anything.

"Oh, um, no. Not really. Any kind of abuse was either mental or verbal. And that wasn't really all that common. It was more of a neglect." Sienna admitted, now touched that he would ask such a thing. She started to cry a bit, due to the fact that this is what he was worried about, and she had treated him so horribly.

"Are you sure? Because your tears tell me otherwise." He said compassionately.

"No, that's not why I'm crying. I was just so horrible to you, and now you're still so caring as to ask if I have ever been abused." She looked down into her lap, and wiped away some tears with the back of her hand.

He gently moved her face so that it was looking at his again, and wiped the tears away with his thumb as he looked into her eyes, and saw that she was telling the truth.

"Alright. I believe you." He said, still wiping the few tears that came out. "But I still need you to trust me, and know that I will never be any kind of abusive. Do you trust that?"

"I do."

"And do you trust that I will never... assault you, and will make anyone who has sorely wish the contrary?"

"Well... yes." Sienna thought about it, and before he could say another word, she said, "look, I don't really trust any adult fully, but for no other reason other than the fact that I know they'll leave me. But you guys are the good guys, I think. That's what the media says, so I don't doubt your intentions."

"That provides some relief. Thank you. I would not have been able to consciously punish you like I'm about to without clearing that up."

"Well that backfired on me." Sienna said, and Steve laughed.

"In the long run, it probably won't. Short term, yes. But you have to know that this isn't abuse. I would never do that to you." Steve said in earnest.

"You aren't reassuring me at all, really, in the short term."

"Well, a lot has happened, and now that I'm calm about it, I figured we should talk it over." When she didn't comment on that, he continued. "I know you don't find it fair, but what you've done in the past 24 hours is unacceptable. And I know you said that past foster homes and foster parents are wildly different, but maybe you deserve different. The good, and the undesirable parts of it. This I think is the undesirable, which may turn out good in the end."

"I don't know about that." Sienna said, making Steve laugh again. "But I guess as much as it sucks getting punished, it's better than getting flipped to new people, or not cared about at all."

"That's my point of view on it, too." He said, and turned very serious. "In this house, we do not tolerate doing things out of spite, the blatant disrespect you showed Nat and I in the kitchen, and me again in Wanda's room, and the disobeying of direct orders to come to my room and stay there. Not to mention picking around in a room you weren't invited into, and playing around with something you knew to be a weapon. And I cannot let those things slide."

Sienna gulped, and meant to get up from the bed, but was stopped by Steve as he grabbed her arm.

Before she could say anything, he had her over his knees, securing her in place with an arm around her waist. "I hope you begin to learn from this, Sienna. Or else you and I will have more of these chats and neither of us will enjoy that at all."

And with that, he began a warm up over her pants. He made quick progress in covering her entire bottom in smacks, and then began for a second round, before Sienna really registered what was happening, and tried to wriggle away.

Unfortunately for her, Steve's grip was like iron, and as much as she tried, which she noted also made a couple harder swats land, she couldn't get away.

Determined to take her licks and leave, she stopped wriggling and just laid over Steve's lap, trying to focus on the pattern of the carpet rather than the pain.

Steve built up a steady rhythm, and was pretty sure that after a couple minutes, her bottom, though he couldn't see it, was thoroughly red.

At this point, Sienna couldn't not focus on the pain, and began to cry silently, and wish, though she had just stated otherwise, that Steve were a little more like her other foster parents. This was more than a little uncomfortable.

At the three minute mark, he stopped. She was relieved, only a couple sniffles had given away that she had cried during it, and tried to get up. Steve pushed her back down over his knees, and then brought her pants and underwear down to past her knees.

This is when the protesting started. "Wait no Steve you can't do this. I've learned my lesson!"

"That was for the spite and the attitude. This is for the backtalk, the running away and not listening when you were asked to put it down. Trust me, if you ever do either of the last two ever again, this next part of your punishment will be done with a wooden hairbrush. This is the second time you've run from a punishment, out of two. That is completely unacceptable."

And he began again. Sienna gasped audibly at how much more it hurt on bare flesh. She didn't think she would be able to remain quiet throughout the rest of the spanking.

She tried to wriggle again, all the while exclaiming "I'm sorry!" "I'll never, ever do this again!" And "please stop! I'll be good!"

"I know you will be, or we'll be ending up here every single time." Steve said, though his resolve was breaking a bit with her pleading. Steeling himself, he continued on.

"Weapons kill people. Weapons can severely injure you, especially if you aren't sure how to use them properly. If I ever see you playing with one again without express permission from one of us, you will be over my knee every night for a week. Do you understand me?" Every other word was punctuated with a hard swat that ignited the fire in Sienna's backside. She was full on crying now, and only got out a "yes" he could hear because of the serum.

Just then, she wriggled a bit, and swung her leg, trying to get away from his falling hand. Instead, she ended up kicking him. He stopped immediately.

"You will stop this now or our conversation will double in length. I understand you don't like it, but you can't be going around kicking your legs."

She stopped moving, but kept up with the crying, which, if she were being honest with herself, was more akin to sobbing at this point.

It had been almost two minutes again, and he resolved to go for one more, this time with a focus on the under curve of her bottom to the tops of her thighs.

As soon as he raised his leg, and the first swat fell, she went limp over his lap, no longer trying to rub away the tears from her eyes. She gave into her punishment, and Steve finished up not too long after.

The entire ordeal lasted about ten minutes, and her entire backside and upper thighs were a deep red shade. She barely noticed when he stopped, and kept up her crying over his lap for another couple minutes, letting him rub circles on her back to calm down.

When she was finally breathing at a more normal pace, he gingerly pulled up her underwear, and flipped her back up onto her feet. She was vaguely aware of herself trying to pull up her pants, but stopped when they touched her upper thighs, and, not caring about modesty, kicked them off.

She looked up at Steve, and he was warily gazing at her, as if at any moment she would run screaming from the room to call Child Protective Services. He knew he had not done anything wrong, but was mildly doubtful she would understand that quite yet.

Instead, what she did surprised him. She opened her arms a little, as if for a hug, and when he stood up to open his arms, she flung herself at him, and began crying again.

He put his arm under her legs, lifted her bridal style into his arms, and sat back down on the bed before embracing her once more.

"Hey, its over now. You don't need to keep crying. It's all forgiven. It's in the past." He said, soothingly while petting her hair and keeping it out of her face. She didn't calm again for a few minutes, and he reveled in being able to provide some comfort after he provided so much pain.

"I'm sorry." She whispered into his chest as her breathing slowed again. "And I don't hate you."

"I know you are. And I thought you probably didn't. All is well." He said, standing up with her again, and moving to put her in his bed. He didn't want to walk back to her room with her as she was not entirely decent, and he could tell she was fading quickly.

"Stay with me a bit?" Sienna asked, as he was about to put her down. "My dad used to comfort me like this when I was upset. I'd like to pretend just for a moment that he's here and I'm just having kid troubles."

"Of course." Steve said, and sat down beside her after he placed her on the bed.

She crawled partially into his lap and fell asleep, feeling a little more loved than she had felt in a while, and a little more at home, with family, despite everything.

 **A/N: it's been too long! I am so sorry. Hope you liked this chapter, regardless. School is still quite busy, but I should be able to post a little more frequently, especially with the holidays coming.**

 **Let me know what you thought of the chapter! I always love feedback, and since this is my first spank fic, it's always nice to see what can be improved!**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

Sienna awoke to a low voice, just barely audible.

"We'll come down for lunch in a bit. I'm going to let her sleep a little while longer." Came Steve's whisper, and Sienna moved a little, now realizing she was basically straddling the man, with her head on his stomach, her arms hugging him to her, and her leg over his.

She tried to shoot up as fast as she could away from this position, not knowing if he thought it was weird, but he caught her before she rolled over.

"Good afternoon." He said, smiling. "You may not want to roll over just quite yet. I'd imagine you're still quite sore."

Suddenly remembering what had happened, Sienna blushed. "Oh, right. And um, sorry about the way I was sleeping."

"No worries, it was quite cute." Steve said, smiling as he lifted her onto her feet so she wouldn't have to touch the bed with her butt.

"I would have taken a picture, but I didn't have my camera on me." Said Nat, whom Sienna noticed for the first time at the door. "Anyways, now that you're both awake, lunch is ready. You may want to put on some pants, Sienna."

Noticing her pants on the floor and blushing again, she walked over to them and put them on, hissing as they touched her tender rear. She was just thankful she was wearing underwear already, because doing that twice would not have been preferable.

"Do we have to go sit and eat lunch?" Sienna half whined, and Steve smiled at her.

"No, I can bring you a sandwich in your room, though, along with your vitamins. Would that be better?"

"I think so." Sienna said, and wiped the sleep out of her eyes as she followed the two adults out of Steve's room.

When they turned towards the kitchen, Steve turned to her, "okay, you go to your room, and I'll meet you there. Remember, you're grounded for the week, so you won't be able to come out again until supper time."

Sienna sighed, but said "okay" and left for her room.

After what had happened last time she didn't go where Steve told her to, she didn't dare check on Wanda before she entered the room she was staying in, but instead knocked on the wall in between them to see if she was still there. She received two knocks back.

"Are you okay?" She heard faintly, and she was glad for not having sound proof rooms.

"I am. Are you?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Steve's bringing me a sandwich to eat in here."

"Hopefully he'll bring me one too. I don't want to go out and face the others."

Just then the door opened behind Sienna, and she turned to see Steve walking in with a tray consisting of orange juice, an apple, a handful of chips, a sandwich and her vitamins.

"She good?" He asked, knowing full well Sienna had been talking to Wanda.

"Yes, she's fine. Can you bring her a sandwich too?"

"Nat had Tony prepare two plates for you guys, so he's in delivering that to her now."

"Oh, okay. Good." Sienna said, and then awkwardly stood, standing by the wall, unsure what to do.

"Here." Steve said, putting the tray down on the dresser. "I'm going to go eat with the team, are you okay?"

"Well, I'm going to be eating standing up, but other than that, I'd say that I am." Sienna replied and then just to be sure she wasn't going to get in more trouble, asked, "is there anything I'm not allowed to do this afternoon?"

"Tony said he's disabled your TV, and that would be the only thing within the contents of these walls that you can't do while grounded, so you'll be good."

"Alright."

"Well, I'll see you at dinner then, unless you need something. If so, just talk to the ceiling and Friday will let us know, and we'll come."

"Okay. See you then."

Steve left, and Sienna went to the tray of food, grabbing the vitamins and downing them before grabbing the sandwich and eating it.

Throughout the next hour, Sienna and Wanda ate their lunches, and used the cups to hear each other better through the walls.

"What do we do to keep entertained when we're grounded?" Sienna asked, already bored. She had one book in her room, but she couldn't read that for the next week.

"Is talking to me not entertaining?" Wanda asked mockingly, then added, "I don't know. I haven't quite been on lockdown for this long before. Maybe I'll see if they can bring me cards so I can play solitaire."

"Will they bring stuff?" Sienna asked, now wishing she could get ahold of a sketch pad.

Wanda considered this for a minute. "They should. Unless they decide we really need to learn our lesson, then maybe they won't. Doesn't hurt to ask."

"Speaking of hurt, is there any way you can send me over some of that healing cream? I'd like to sit down every now and then." Sienna said, rubbing her tender bottom and shaking out her legs. Standing was getting tiring.

"No, it looks like Nat took it." Wanda said, sadly.

"Great. Well my legs are getting tired, so I'm going to go lay on the bed on my stomach. If you get too bored, knock three times on the wall so I know to come back."

Wanda thought this was a good idea, and went down to lay on her bed, promptly falling asleep.

Sienna, however, having had a longer nap than Wanda, couldn't sleep. She laid on her stomach, twirling designs into the sheets until she couldn't take it anymore. Then, she flipped over to get up, and immediately regretted it. Groaning, she managed to get herself off the bed again without her butt touching any surface.

She stood up, and realized that there was absolutely nothing to do in this room.

Begrudgingly, she grabbed her one book, and resolved to read it slowly as she laid on her bed once again.

SM

She was about halfway through it around 4 (she couldn't help it, no matter how slow she read it, it wouldn't take her forever to finish it) when a knock sounded on her door.

Sienna was accustomed to this just being a courtesy whenever someone was entering whichever room of whichever house she was staying in, and didn't bother answering. She heard the door open a bit, and she turned to look at who was there. It was Tony.

"Someone knocks and you just think 'hmm. Don't have to answer that'?" Tony asked, mildly annoyed.

"You were coming in anyway, evidently. And nowhere else has cared before. I've learnt that unless I'm changing, and even sometimes then, people knocking means they're coming in."

Tony looked slightly abashed at this. Then he sighed. "I came in because I thought you were asleep, and I wanted to check on you, make sure you were okay."

Sienna flushed, not realizing his intentions, but knowing she should have assumed more than the other foster homes.

"Next time, just answer. If you don't want someone to come in, you can say so, and unless it's a pressing matter, we'll respect you."

"Okay." Sienna put her book down and moved to get up.

"Oh no, don't do that. I've been in your position one too many times and I know sitting may not be your best option right now. How about I just-" and he motioned to the chair in the room, grabbing it before pulling it over up beside her bed.

"I feel like I'm an invalid in the hospital when you sit like that." Sienna said, moving a little so she was propped up on her arms and facing the billionaire. "There. That's better."

"Are you okay?" Tony asked then, eyeing her.

"And what do you mean by that? Is my butt okay, or am I mentally okay?"

"Both."

"Well one has never had a worse day, and the other is figuring it out. I'm just trying to work out the dynamic, because you all have very different ideas on parenting than anyone I've ever lived with. Even my parents."

"We're much different than them?" Tony asked, worried that they were doing something wrong, something they shouldn't be doing.

"Well, I know enough to know that you're a billionaire, and you keep your money in a bank. If you were like my parents, you would be literally swimming in the money because every dollar would be here. Plus you guys are literal superheroes, and mine were just mine."

"Ah okay well I'm glad to hear we aren't so different from them that we've scarred you." Tony said, in a serious yet sarcastic tone. Then he became a little more serious. "I lost my parents too, you know."

She looked at him with empathy.

"I mean, I was older than you were, but I know how you feel. In fact, we all do. Only Vision won't understand, and that's because we made him a couple months ago."

Sienna looked at her hands, not sure what to say.

"I'm sorry. About your parents. I know it was our fault, but I want you to know we were trying our best to avoid that situation." Tony blurted out in the most out of character three sentences she'd ever heard him speak.

She was speechless for a second, then muttered under her breath to herself. "Friday, can you get Steve, Nat and Clint in here for a second? I have something to say to all of them."

"Right away Miss Montgomery."

Tony looked at her strangely, but she took no notice of him as she got up off the bed. When they all came in, she motioned for everyone to move to sit on the bed. She turned to them.

"Wanda told me you might think this, and Tony just confirmed it, so I wanted to tell you all in person. I do not blame you for my parents' deaths." Nat looked serious at this, Clint confused, and Tony and Steve looked ready to protest. She raised her hand to stop them from arguing. "I read and saw the news afterwards, when I was waiting for my parents to get home, and when I was preparing myself for being on my own. It was Thor's brother Loki who brought all this on, and you were only trying to save the world. I also saw pictures of Tony flying a nuke through the sky, to save all of New York. Including me. So I see no reason to blame you. It was all you could do to keep as many people alive as you did. The giant metal whale and Loki killed my parents. You save countless other people's."

"That's..." Steve started, rather at a loss for words. "That's so very mature of you. But I still feel partially responsible, because it was our job to stop all those Chitauri in the first place."

"But they didn't come here because you asked them to. They came because Loki's a dick. I'm not entirely sure why he chose Earth, but he did, and that's none of your faults."

They all felt a little awkward at the situation, which felt like Sienna was scolding them, but nodded anyways.

"You're sure?" Nat asked, looking down.

"Absolutely." Sienna said, crossing her arms.

"Okay." Clint said, semi-lightly. "You know your own mind, and what you say, I'm going to assume you mean it."

"I do." Sienna assured them, looking at everyone individually.

"Alright." Steve said, and the two others seemed to slump and let their stress go.

"So what was with all the resistance coming here, then, if you didn't think we were to blame for their deaths?" Tony asked, sitting up again.

"I told you." Sienna said, exasperated. "I like living on my own. I didn't want to be in jail, sure, but Steve and Pepper can attest to the fact that I practically demanded to be left on the street to fend for myself."

"She did. Not very nicely, either." Steve said, remembering.

"Well I was less sure of you guys then. You seem okay, now."

"But you'd still like to live on your own," Nat spoke up, understanding the evasiveness.

"Of course I would. Thank you for all that you've given me, but when you're used to no rules, no people, and complete freedom, especially at almost 17, you're going to want to keep it."

"But you couldn't take care of yourself. You were underfed and without money." Steve said.

"Yeah, one of the reasons we caught you was because your face was picked up on a store's security camera, returning baby clothes to get cash." Tony said, thinking back.

"With me being on the run, I couldn't get a job, and risk someone coming in and recognizing me. I tried to get emancipated, but they wouldn't let me without sufficient proof that I would be able to care for myself; basically, if I didn't have a job, I wasn't getting emancipated. I did that thing in the store to get money for things I wanted to splurge on, because I didn't have enough of my parent's money to spend on those kinds of things."

"So you really couldn't take care of yourself, then." Clint said, taking in all the facts. "If you needed to steal money."

"Which will never happen again." Steve threw in, but just as an aside. "And you still aren't mentioning the food."

"Well, like I said when first moving in here, I never felt hungry. I did eat when I was, though." Sienna said, thinking of the food that was probably gone to waste at her apartment. At least they hadn't asked about that place, yet. "And I still think I could take care of myself. I survived, and not unhappily."

"Well I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that, then." Steve said, knowing full well they wouldn't get anywhere with her.

"Alright." Sienna said, and then looked at them more closely. "So are you good, now?"

"I will learn to accept that you're probably right, and it was not our faults." Steve said, "but it may take some time. When I saw that date on their headstones, I felt an immediate sadness, not just because of your parents, but because of everyone lost in that battle, everyone we couldn't save."

"You shouldn't have to be able to save everyone in an alien invasion," Sienna said then. "There shouldn't be an alien invasion in the first place."

Tony let out a quite laugh, "yeah, you're right about that."

"Thor's cool though." Said Clint, thinking of their friend.

"He didn't really invade Earth, though. He was just banished here and wound up in our laps." Nat contradicted.

Everyone was silent for a minute until Sam knocked on the already open door. "I know it's a little early for dinner, but I made lasagna, if anybody wants some."

Steve adjusted and looked at everyone. "That sounds great, actually."

"Oh, so that's what smelled so good!" Piped up Clint, who sprang up off the bed. Nat and Tony followed suit, while Steve got up a little slower and pulled Sienna into a side hug.

"I know you didn't have to, so it thank you for telling us how you felt."

"Wanda told me you felt that way, and I knew I couldn't let you live with that. I would hate it myself."

"Well it's been cleared up now. Let's go eat."

He kept his arm around her shoulders as they walked towards the dining room, all while she was wondering how she would be able to be comfortable during dinner.

Thankfully, there appeared to be an extra pillow on two of the seats, and her and Wanda sat down on them. It was still mildly irritating, but she could deal with it more.

Sam's lasagna was amazing, and she ate the most food she's eaten in one meal in years because of it.

They stayed there talking and laughing for a good hour and a half, and Sienna enjoyed the break from her room, and listening to Clint talk about his family, Sam talk about the first time he met Steve, and everyone talk about the smaller missions, which generally had better rewards to them.

All too soon, though not too soon for her poor bottom, which, despite the pillow, was aching, her and Wanda were sent back to their rooms for the night.

She was happy to find a deck of cards and sketch pad and pencils waiting for her on her bed.

"Thank you Nat." She said aloud, knowing it was probably her who did it, seeing as she was the only one who knew she liked to draw.

She excitedly grabbed the stuff, and ran over to her wall, knocking on it.

"Yeah?" Came Wanda's reply soon after.

"Did you get some stuff too?"

"Yeah! I got a deck of cards and a book of crossword puzzles, what did you get?"

"A deck of cards and a sketch pad."

"Never underestimate Nat's power." Came Wanda's reply. "Anyways, I'm going to play some solitaire. Knock again if you need anything."

"Sounds good!" With that, Sienna turned around and started playing solitaire herself.

She was only successful once out of the 5 times she played, and when her eyes started to droop, she put the cards on the dresser and got ready for bed.

SM

The next morning, she awoke to an apple on her dresser with a note under it saying 'in case you're hungry before we wake up'.

She grabbed the apple and got sad again that she couldn't go to the library to read. Sucking it up, she went to the bathroom to take a look at how her butt was healing. It was still pink, and was mildly irritating to sit on, but with movement and a pillow, she could manage it.

So, she sat down at the table in her room with her sketch pad, and started to draw. She started off squirming, but by the time Sam came to get her for breakfast, she was so into her drawing that she hadn't noticed any pain anymore.

After breakfast, she finally got to start training with Clint on one side of the room while everyone else was training more to the middle. He put her to work with just the warm up and basic exercises, but as she hadn't done much physical training except running while in foster care, it was enough.

"We'll build on that tomorrow." Clint said, smiling at her. "For now I think you need to rest up."

"No, I can keep going!" Sienna said, albeit mostly out of breath.

"It's best if we don't push you too hard on your first real day." Clint said, ruffling her hair at her interest.

"Okay yes but if I stop I have to go back to the room and I'll be there all afternoon anyways." Sienna said, unhappily.

"Alright, fine." Clint said, knowing it would suck to be in her situation, "run on the treadmill until you tire. Then you'll have to go back to your room."

"Deal!" Sienna said, bounding over.

Unfortunately for her, 'until you tire' turned out to be sooner than she had hoped, and was only able to run for about ten minutes until she was absolutely pooped.

"Alright, come on." Steve said, coming over to her and turning the machine off. "You're exhausted and I told you there was no stalling while you're grounded."

Sienna wanted to argue, but found she had no breath to do so. She let the treadmill come to a stop, but then just stood there holding her side and taking deep breaths.

"You alright?" Steve asked, handing her a water bottle.

She drank most of the bottle before responding. "Yeah. Apart from doing Wanda's five miles with her, I haven't worked out in quite a while. I only ever used to run away from cops, and that's a lot less running, and a lot more squeezing through small places to get away."

"I remember that. That's how little Tink got away from me that first time." Sam said, coming up.

"Yes, well maybe you shouldn't push yourself too hard next time, then." Steve said, knowing there was no real need for her to push herself as hard as she did. "And make sure you take all your vitamins today."

"I'm okay." Sienna said, though she still didn't get off the treadmill.

"Tink." Sam said, coming around to look at her, worriedly.

"I'm... fine." She said, through heavy breaths. Finally, she got off the treadmill, and turned to face a very worried Steve. "Really. Just have jello legs."

"Do you need help getting back to your room?"

"No. I'm good." She would never be taken seriously if she couldn't get ahold of herself in this state.

She was the first one really finished training, because everyone else was working on their specific skill sets, so she walked slowly back to the room. Once there, she peeled off her sweaty clothes, and got into the shower.

The water pressure she usually liked hit her still sore bottom and was too hard for her liking, so she turned on the pressure that was more like a mist and stayed there, washing fully, and then washing some more. She didn't remember a time she had ever been more sweaty, and wanted to rid herself of the feeling.

When she finally felt clean again, she stepped out, wrapped herself in a towel, and put on a t-shirt and the baggiest pants she could find. She then turned on the bathtub and threw her exercise clothes in, and began to wash them.

With everything that needed to be cleaned clean, she went back to her sketch pad and continued to draw.

A half hour later, she was called down to lunch.

"How are the muscles, Tink?" Sam asked as she came in.

"A little sore but I can't complain too much." She said, and graciously accepted the macaroni given to her.

After lunch, she went back to her room for a quick nap before continuing to draw.

Later that afternoon, she heard a knock on her door.

"Come in!" She called, closing her sketch pad.

Nat walked in then. "Hey kid."

"Hi. I'm assuming this was you," Sienna said, pointing to the sketch pad and deck of cards.

"Yeah, well, there's not much to do all chained up in a room. You're being punished, you aren't in prison." Nat smiled at her. "What are you drawing?"

"I'll show you when I finish." Sienna said, as she didn't like showing people her work while it was still being worked on. If they made a comment, she would focus too much on that spot, and would likely not be as pleased with the final product in the end.

"Well, I don't want to interrupt you. I was just coming in to see if you wanted to play a card game, but I can come back when you finish."

She started to turn towards the door, but Sienna stopped her, "no, I don't mind! It's going to take me quite a while to finish, so I'm up for interruptions."

"Alright, what do you want to play?"

The rest of the afternoon was spent with them teaching each other card games, and getting to know each other better.

When Friday spoke up, it made Sienna jump out of her skin a bit, but Nat didn't flinch. "Dinner is ready."

Nat chuckled at Sienna's reaction. "You'll get used to that."

"It's just so weird hearing a voice you can't see the owner of." Sienna replied, not particularly liking that something can see what she's doing at all times.

"I will try to not scare you next time." Friday replied as Nat and Sienna walked towards the door.

"Thanks." Sienna said, only mildly sarcastically.

SM

The rest of the week continued like that, with various workouts and training in the morning, and then drawing or hanging out with someone in her room in the afternoons and evenings.

Before she knew it, she was free. She was tentative to leave her room when she woke up that morning, but after triple checking with Friday, she got dressed and left, heading for the library.

She was well immersed in her book when Clint's voice startled her.

"Breakfast is ready."

"What? Already? I haven't been reading that long have I?"

"Yep, you little bookworm. It's almost 9."

Sienna was astounded, but as she looked at her nearly finished book, she conceded that she had gotten carried away with the time.

After a good and hearty bowl of oatmeal, Sienna was starting to head back to the library to finish the book before training.

She was stopped by Steve. "I want you to come to my office for a bit. We aren't training today, so you'll be back to your book in no time."

She didn't really want to go to his office, but she followed him anyways, not wanting to risk time with her book for the rest of the day in case he punished her for not complying. She just got ungrounded. She wasn't going to be in trouble again.

"I remembered just last night that we have to enrol you in a homeschooling program." He said, sitting down at his desk, and pulling one around for Sienna to sit, too. "I've found three programs that you can sign up for, so I wanted to get your opinion on which ones, and then enrol you in classes, so maybe if you wanted, you could start catching up."

Actually, Sienna liked learning, so summer school didn't seem all that bad to her. Plus, she'd skipped so much school already, she didn't think she could whine about having to do some over the summer.

"Sure!" She said, and leaned forward eagerly, looking to see the screen better.

"Here, why don't we switch seats, and you can get a better look." Steve said, getting up out of his, and taking hers when she'd vacated it.

After a couple minutes of looking at each program quickly, Sienna marked her favorites. "This website has a poor design plan, and even if the schooling is good, I think I'd get a headache looking at something like this too long." Sienna heard Steve writing something down on a piece of paper, but didn't turn around. "These other two look professional enough, and from my brief checks, have pretty good reviews. One is geared more towards the sciences and maths though, and the other is more towards the arts and business."

She turned around to look at Steve, and what he was writing down.

"Just taking notes." He said, smiling at her.

"Look who's being studious." Sienna replied jokingly, and then became more serious. "I think business is the best road to go down, as it leaves many career opportunities open. Plus I love the arts."

"Alright. Well let's switch seats again while I make some calls, and I'll see if we can pick some courses for you to start, soon."

As Steve was doing that, Sienna took it upon herself to look at the various items around Steve's desk. The one thing that peaked her interest the most was a drawing of a money on what looked to be a unicycle. She reached for it absently, and was shocked when Steve's hand grabbed it and gave it to her. He was still on the phone.

"Is there any way to start her in her sophomore year now, so she can try to catch up before the people her age graduate?" He was listening attentively to the answer while Sienna examined the drawing. It was quite good, and gave her inspiration for a doodle of her own.

She found a blank pad of paper, and was looking around for a pencil when one appeared in front of her.

"And how soon would we be able to pick up the books?"

She paid him and his conversation no mind as she took the pencil and began her little drawing.

When the phone was hung up, she was almost finished, but looked to Steve anyways.

"Did you hear anything I was saying on the phone?" Steve asked, looking bemused at her expectant face.

"No, once I found what I was looking for, I kind of shut you out."

Steve chuckled and grabbed his picture. "Performing monkey. That's what I was when I first became Captain America."

He said it with a hint of a sigh, but no regret.

"Oh. I just thought him on a unicycle was funny. Didn't belong there. So I'm drawing a penguin on a ranch farm wearing cowboy gear." Sienna said, turning the pad of paper around.

Steve laughed quite hard at that statement and took the pad from her before she could protest, and looked at it. "It's not finished, but it will be soon."

"Looks pretty good to me." Steve said, putting the paper down on the desk. "Now, they said they can start you in two summer courses in July, and then if you finish those quickly, can give out more. I guess the most summer school students usually have is one or two classes, so they don't want to overwhelm you."

"That's fine. We can continue like this for a little while longer." Sienna said, picking up the pad and continuing her doodle.

"Before you get too into that, we're going to have to figure out which courses you're taking."

"Do I have a choice of many?"

"Yep. Pick two from this list." He said, pointing to his computer screen.

"Hmm... math and English. An easy and a hard one." Sienna said, and then turned her attention back to her drawing again.

"Alright. I'll arrange to pick up those books in the coming weeks in town."

As soon as the words left his mouth, the phone rang.

Steve looked concerned at the caller ID.

"Who is it?" Sienna asked, but received only a raised hand to silence her in return.

"Hello." Steve answered in a grave tone. Immediately, his face filled with worry, and listened for only 15 seconds before saying, "understood. We'll be there."

Both he and Sienna stood, the drawing now forgotten. "What's going on?" Sienna asked, worried at the grave expression.

"There was a spotting of one of our nemeses. We're going to have to go after this lead." Steve said, and pushed past her to tell the others, leaving Sienna running behind.

 **I'm back! Kinda. Exams are soon, and I've just moved out, so that's fun to deal with, but I haven't forgotten this story, and think up more to add every day!**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

"Friday, get everyone to head to the conference room as fast as they can." Steve said as he was walking.

Sienna ran after him, finding he was walking much too quickly for her liking. But, she guessed, it was likely important if he had a lead on his 'nemesis'.

When they got to the conference room, everyone was there or almost there. Steve started talking the moment he got there. "We have a lead on Rumlow."

"What?" Nat said, shocked. "Where?"

"There are multiple witnesses placing him in South America. We're going to have to go there immediately." Steve said with more authority than she's ever heard in him before, and that was saying something. "Going to need all hands on deck for this one, we don't know how dangerous he is, nor how many people are helping him."

"Wait, we're all going?" Wanda asked, unsure, as they were just starting on working on their techniques together.

"You'll be fine. We may have just started as a team but we all have each other's backs." Steve said. "Okay, wheels up in 10, get what you need."

Steve turned around and saw Sienna standing, looking decently perplexed, unsure of what she would need.

"You aren't coming." Steve said. "What am I going to do with you?"

Sienna spoke for the first time since being in Steve's office, "I can come and just hide or something. I've never been to South America."

"And you aren't going today. You aren't being brought into this. You're being trained only in self-defense, and you aren't allowed anywhere near this kind of life."

"But..."

"No, Sienna."

"I'm still retired, Cap. I'll keep an eye on her." Clint said from the other end of the room.

Steve had to go get ready, so he nodded at that and ran away swiftly down the hall.

Sienna sighed. "Is it going to be really dangerous?"

"Depends on what they find when they're there. Best not to worry about it too much right now." Clint said, before changing tone again. "But if you want to watch as I prepare the jet, you can."

"Okay!" Sienna said, excited to see the plane. She hadn't really gotten a good look during their rescue.

They ran there as fast as they could, and the door to the jet opened immediately.

"Friday will be able to go with them, and stay with us as well. She'll be able to take over flying if ever there's a need, and do everything she can electronically." Clint said as he pressed buttons and flicked switches on the control panel.

"Who's JARVIS?" Sienna said, eyeing a bumper sticker on the inside of the jet that says "JARVIS is my copilot."

"That's a long story, but it's the old Friday. He was turned into Vision, and that's why we have both Friday and Vision now." Clint said, demonstrating his amazing ability to multitask by never once looking at her, but also never sputtering in his speech.

"Wow." Sienna said, walking around. This thing was pretty big, and pretty detailed. Bigger than the one Steve picked her and Wanda up in.

She sat down in one of the seats, trying to figure out the buckles. She wasn't trying to stay, but she had never seen a seatbelt like this before, and was curious with how it was put together.

She was still fiddling around with them when Wanda walked onto the jet with a bag in her hand. "You're coming too?"

"No, she's not." Steve said, walking onto the jet in full Captain America gear minus the cowl. "What are you doing on here?"

"Just staying with Clint as he gets everything ready. Trying to figure out how this seatbelt works." She said, looking down once more to continue figuring out the buckles.

"All set, Cap." Clint said, coming up to stand beside him.

Steve leaned down, and with one quick press of a button, unbuckled Sienna. She gave a little humph, but didn't protest too much. "You can figure out the seat belt when we get back. Be good for Clint. Take your vitamins."

"Yeah, yeah." Sienna said, rolling her eyes as she and Clint walked off the plane.

"I mean it, Sienna! I don't want to get back and hear that you've been a pain." Steve called, and she turned to face him.

Sienna made a face, and Clint chuckled. "We'll be fine, Cap. Don't worry about us."

Everyone else had boarded at that point, so Steve sighed and waved a goodbye has the back hatch closed.

"Come on, let's get away from the engines. We don't want that blasting in our face for takeoff." Clint said, and then held his hand out for her. "If we rush, we might be able to make it to the roof to watch takeoff.

Sienna smiled and grabbed his hand, and together they sprinted up various flights of stairs, making it to the roof just in time to wave goodbye. Tony smiled from the pilot's seat, and waved, before taking off over top of them.

"Well, now what?" Sienna asked, looking around the rooftop.

"Don't you have a book to finish? Then we can maybe swim or something. Or relax in the pool." Clint said, and looked like he was day dreaming. "Water sounds nice. Don't have a pool at home."

"Both those options sound good to me. But I think I would prefer the pool right now."

"Pool it is. Get ready, and I'll meet you down there."

SM

Clint found a blow up raft to lay on while Sienna did laps then floated in the shallow end by herself.

"Hey Clint," she said quietly, feeling like if she lay quietly, she wouldn't wake him if he was asleep.

"Mmm?" Was her only response back.

"You said you're retired and that you don't have a pool at home… does that mean you're leaving soon?"

Clint opened his eyes to look at her, but didn't move much from his position. "Yeah. I have a newborn, and two kids that like to move. Should probably go and take care of all of them. Plus, you all don't need me anymore. But if ever you do, just call me, and I'll come back. I'll probably go when they get back."

"Okay. Was just wondering." Sienna replied, but she was making a mental note of where and when people would be leaving her. As of right now, everyone was either already gone, or leaving. It gave her a bad feeling in her stomach.

She was worried about being left alone again, not by her choice, at least. She didn't even want to stay here, at least she didn't think so. Not forever, but here was better than child jail, but she wouldn't be able to stay if none of them were here, especially if child services found out. They would come and take her like they did after her parents died. And also she was starting to like them a little, and them leaving her would hurt. It would solidify exactly what she's always thought: everybody leaves.

Maybe she could just run away. Then she would be the leaver, not the one left behind. It was just a question of where to go. She knew she wouldn't be able to find a better life outside New York, and she really wanted to stay close to where her parents were buried, but hiding away from the Avengers would require some extra precautions. Maybe she could make a fake ID, head back to her old apartment to grab everything she could, get a bus (she'd have to leave her van behind, because they would find a way – she was sure – of tracking her license plate) and just pick a random stop along the way, and start a new life as a slightly older and therefore legal person.

But that would require some actual action, and not just a want to do something. And the unfortunate part about _everyone_ around you being even somewhat invested in your life, was that planning something like that, and then eventually actually leaving, would be next to impossible. And that wasn't even taking Friday into account. Surely, she would notify someone if she suspected anything, and then she could see that ending very painfully for her.

Well, it would take a lot of planning, and not a lot of writing things down. Nothing could be practical until she was moving. They would find her, if not.

"What are you thinking about?" Clint asked opening up one eye to look at her.

Lying to foster parents, at this point, was like second nature. "Just thinking about this arch enemy or whoever this guy is, wondering if they're in lots of danger."

Clint gave her his full attention now, "whenever any of us leave on a mission like this, there's always a little bit of danger. But all of them went on this one. They're probably okay. Just bumps and bruises is my best guess."

"And how long will they be gone?"

"Depends. Could be a week, could be more. Could be bad intel, and they'll be back in a couple of days."

SM

It wasn't a couple of days. It had already been a week, and they hadn't heard anything other than a couple coded messages saying they were okay.

Sienna was just finishing up her latest book when Clint came in to the living room.

"There's an emergency at home. All three kids and the wife have the flu."

"Oh no!" Sienna exclaimed, genuinely concerned. "But it's summer, how'd that come up?"

"I guess someone at daycare had it, and then it was brought home." Clint said, sitting down next to her, sighing. "I'm going to have to go to take care of them. But I don't want to leave you alone here."

"I was fine for years on my own. This place is fully stocked – we just went grocery shopping yesterday – and there are plenty of things to do. Go to them. I'll be fine. Besides, I like being alone sometimes."

He looked torn, but his only other choice was to bring her too, and he didn't want her to get as sick as his kids. "Okay. I will call every other day, and you better pick up. Do anything you shouldn't, and I will come back and double whatever it is Steve gives you."

Well that was enough deterrent to not do anything. And also she had no current and concrete plans on how to leave yet. "I won't do anything. Go."

"Alright." Clint said, looking torn, but knowing it was the right thing to do to go be with his family.

In less than 30 minutes, he was speeding out of the garage and down the laneway.

"Ah, alone at last. Just like the good old days." She said aloud, then looked around. "What to do, what to do…" She couldn't do all the things she used to, because that would mean leaving the building, and she hadn't been allowed to do that yet without someone else present. Also she'd read almost all of the books in the library that she thought were interesting.

"Might I suggest watching _Supernatural_? You were into that before." Friday chimed in, making Sienna jump again. "Sorry."

"Right, never alone." Sienna said, but conceded that that was just a fact of her current, albeit temporary, life. "Is it playing?"

"I can pull it up on Netflix. Would you like to start from the beginning?"

"Yes please." Sienna said, and was surprised to find it had suddenly shown up on the TV in the living room.

SM

After several episodes, her stomach started grumbling, and she looked at the clock to find it was supper time. This was a first, and Steve and all of them would be happy. She found herself hungry without anyone prompting her to eat.

It was weird for her to think of how she was thinking of making her foster parents happy. Hadn't happened in quite a while, but she guessed that came with the territory when your foster parents actually seemed to care about you, and when you don't completely hate them back.

She found a TV dinner that she and Clint had bought at the grocery store, and put it in the microwave to heat up, while she grabbed her vitamins. She shook the bottle and found it was almost empty. Tony had mentioned that when she ran out, she should go to the doctor to get herself checked out, to see if she had to continue taking them.

She picked up the phone from the counter and called her caseworker's office, expecting the replacement they had gotten for her caseworker when she went on maternity leave. The replacement never really seemed to care about her, seeing as she hadn't even seen her when she moved in to the Avengers building, but she knew she was the one required to take her to the doctor's, especially since she didn't know when everyone would be back.

"Hello, Sally Greenberg." Said her replacement caseworker when the call was finally picked up.

"Hi Sally, it's Sienna."

"Sienna?" Came the disinterested reply.

"Montgomery. Sienna Montgomery." Sienna said, mixing up her dinner as she did so, and blowing on it before taking a bite.

"Oh right. You." Said Sally, and Sienna had never wished for her regular caseworker back more. "What do you want?"

"I need to go for a checkup at the doctor's." Sienna stated, putting another bite into her mouth.

"Aren't you in foster care right now? Why can't they take you?"

"Would you just pull up my file please and see where they put me?" She could hear typing going on in the background and then a gasp.

"They placed you with the freaking _Avengers_?" She asked, nearly whispering that final word.

"Yes, and currently they're off chasing a lead. Couldn't take me with them so I'm being babysat by the computer. And a computer can't take me to a doctor's appointment."

"Wait, they freaking _left you_ without telling us?" Sally exclaimed, like she was finally following protocol.

"Since when do you care what happens to me?"

"Okay, fine. You _need_ to go to the doctor's?" Sally asked, and Sienna could tell she didn't want to do it.

"Look, I don't like this anymore than you do, but if you could just come and get me the next time my doctor has an appointment, that would be great. I'm available as of 4 a.m. and basically every day of the week."

"Okay, fine. I'll set up an appointment and get back to you soon."

SM

The appointment was set for the coming Thursday at 8, so Sienna woke up and dressed herself that day, looking as nice as she could to seem as healthy as possible. She desperately wanted to avoid more doctor's appointments in the future, and maybe looking nice will prove that she's taken care of herself, and won't need to go in anymore.

"Friday, can you let me into Wanda's room please? I need to find that skirt we bought a while ago, to look as nice as I can."

As she said that, Wanda's door clicked open. "It is in the bottom drawer on the right." The AI said, and sure enough, she found it.

"Perfect, thank you!" She said, and quickly exited the room, going back to her own to find a matching top.

She then made herself some breakfast (a nice and healthy omelet) and sat down to watch a few more episodes of Supernatural before Sally came to pick her up. That's when she heard a jet getting close, and looked out the window to see the jet coming back.

She didn't want to seem too eager to see them, so just continued watching her show, but not really paying attention, as she wanted to hear when they came in.

Not five minutes later, she heard the rustle of everyone coming down the hallway, and paused the show to look over at them.

"Hey, how are you guys?" She asked tentatively, trying to assess damages based on looks. She couldn't really.

"All fine, Tink." Sam said, smiling. "Nothing we couldn't handle."

"How'd the Hawk treat you? No scarring life altering moments happen while we were gone?" Tony asked, and he looked completely fine, but Sienna guessed that that was because he had had his Iron Man suit.

"No, but he did have to leave to take care of his very sick family. Been hanging out here ever since."

"He left you alone?!" Steve exclaimed, looking around, as if he didn't believe that she had been telling the truth.

Sienna shrugged. "I've taken care of myself for long periods of time before. Basically since I was 13, really. And he called all the time, and even threatened to double whatever you gave me if I misbehaved. Which, let me just say – and Friday can back me up on this – I didn't."

"I can attest to that, sir. She's been reading and watching TV all week. Distracted her with it, really." And though Sienna knew she didn't have any real emotions, it seemed as though she was smug.

"A wanted distraction." Sienna mumbled, while Sam laughed at the face she made.

"See, that's why I call you Tink. Anyways, 'night kid."

Then, he and everyone but Steve turned down towards the bedrooms. Wanda waved, but yawned as she did so.

"Are you sure everyone's okay? You all seem dead tired."

"Just a few sore muscles and exhaustion. We'll take a few days off and be right as rain." He said, coming in to where she could see him better.

They surveyed each other, her to check that he wasn't lying, making sure that the dirt on his uniform wasn't anything more than that, and him to see that she was wearing the skirt they had had a minor meltdown over in the store.

"You're… in the skirt? Why? Do you need to do laundry? I can run a load later today." Steve asked, seeing no other reason for the wearing of the skirt.

"No, I did that a few days ago. I'm going to the doctor's today because I'm out of vitamins and Tony wanted me to see if I need them anymore."

"Oh, okay. Have you made an appointment? How were you planning on getting there, do you need me to drive you? Did you not think to ask one of us?"

"Yes, I made an appointment, and no I didn't ask, because none of you were here. Told Clint when he called though, said it was okay because my social worker is taking me."

"You have a social worker? Since when?" Steve asked, and Sienna laughed.

"Boy, did they not tell you anything in foster parent school? I've had one since I started in foster care, but this one is a temporary one while my regular worker is off on leave."

He contemplated this for a second, but then nodded. "Why haven't we met this person before? Shouldn't we have met her?"

"Probably, but she's not the best one out there. If you're awake when we get back, I'll introduce you."

"No, I will meet her and then go to bed." Steve said determinedly, knowing he had to step up in this way.

"Steve, it's five in the morning. She won't be here until at least 7, and no offense but not that I'm getting a good look at you, you look dead tired." Sienna said, and then paused a second in thought before continuing. "Besides, my other foster parents never really paid attention to my comings and goings, and if I had ever been out with my worker while they were home, the only time they ever saw her was when if there was something they had to know about. Even then, it was lucky if we saw them."

Steve seemed resigned, but then sighed, running a hand over his face. "Fine, but no matter what I want to meet her when she drops you off. We probably should know her just in case for the future. And just a reminder that we aren't like your other foster parents. Under different circumstances, we would be taking you, or at least meeting your worker before you left. Do you want Vision to stay up and wait with you? He doesn't need sleep."

"No, it's alright. He seems to like floating alone in his room or whatever it is that he does there, so we should give him that after you guys being away for so long. Go to bed. I'm fine."

He yawned, and then nodded. "Have a good appointment."

With that, he turned around and headed towards his room, and Sienna was alone again.

She watched her show until 7, then went outside to wait for Sally.

The navy sedan pulled up at 7:06, and Sienna got in the front seat.

"Hi." Sally said, but didn't pull away when Sienna had gotten herself buckled. "This is it, then?"

"Yep. This is it."

"Are they there now? Have they come home from chasing their lead?" Sally asked, still looking at the building.

"They just got in this morning, all went to bed as soon as they arrived. Long mission, I guess."

She looked sad for some reason, but then smiled and turned to Sienna. "Makes sense. How are you doing?"

Sienna found her newfound niceness a little odd for her, but didn't think too much about it, knowing Sally would be 100% more tolerable if they both pretended to like each other.

"I'm well, how are you?"

"Just lovely." Sally replied sweetly, creeping Sienna out. "Any who, onward march, then?"

Sienna just nodded, and off they went. Sally made pleasant conversation the entire time, and Sienna replied with as much animosity as she could fake.

Finally, and much to Sienna's relief, they got to her doctor's. It was fairly busy in the waiting room, so she was relieved of having to talk to Sally some more.

Finally, long past their appointment time, she was called in, and Sally left her to it as she went.

"Good morning Sienna, how are you today?" The nurse asked as she took her vitals and her weight, and wrote them down on the sheet in front of her.

Wanting this to go as well as possible, she responded with "great, how are you?" instead her regular "good" or "well". She _really_ wasn't a big fan of doctors, and wanted to be out of there as soon as possible.

"I'm well. Dr. McIntyre will be in in a few moments." The nurse replied, and then left the room.

Sienna took the few minutes to survey her charts, and saw that she was heavier than the last recorded checkup, and vitals were average, or so she thought. She didn't know quite how to read those.

Dr. McIntyre came in with a smile on her face. "Checking out your stats?"

"Yeah, just wanted to see them for myself."

"Everything looks good, so far. You're gaining weight steadily to a healthy weight, and you look like you're starting to get a bit of muscle, as well." She said, pointing to the girl's bare arms.

"Oh really? Haven't been training all that much, but I guess it's good enough." Sienna said, looking down. She had done a bit of exercise while everyone was away, but Friday annoyingly locked the training room, so she hadn't had access to anything.  
"Yeah, it's much better than the report I have from the last doctor."

"So I won't have to continue with the vitamins?"

"Unfortunately, I can't tell for sure just from looking at you. We'll have to send you for bloodwork." Well, screw that. "I'll print you up a requisition, and then in the next month or so, you should go get it done, and we'll be in touch again. How does that sound?"

It sounded like hell. "Great, thanks!"

She happily accepted the bloodwork form, and then made to get up when her doctor said, "You'll have to continue taking all the vitamins you were before. They were just over the counter, right?"

"As far as I know. I don't recall there being a prescription."

"Alright, well, you'll need to take a multivitamin, B Complex, and iron pills, just to be safe. Can you remember that?"

"Yes I can, thank you!" She had already forgotten. Oh well. She was progressing fine; she didn't need them.

She put the requisition in her pocket, reminding herself to dump it somewhere before she got back to the Avengers building.

Sally stood up as she came out, "does she need to talk to me at all?"

"Nope, I'm a big girl. They trust me." Bad idea on their part, really.

"Alright, well then let's go." Sally said, grabbing her stuff and leaving the office. "Do we need to pick anything up?"

"Nope. We can just go back."

"Will they be awake yet, do you think?" Sally asked, with a genuine look of hope in her eyes.

"It's only 9:30, they've barely been back 5 hours. If I had to guess, they won't be up until lunch time at the latest." Sienna replied, disinterested.

"Oh." Sally seemed dejected. "Well I think I should meet them, so why don't we go do something until lunch time?"

Oh, hell no. "Why are you so interested in meeting them now? Shouldn't you know them at least to some degree before I'm put in their care?"

"I admit, I was really busy when you were arrested and transferred, but I'm not now, and I should really meet them. Besides, I have to talk to them about leaving you without notifying us."

She put the car into gear, but Sienna had no idea where she was bringing her.

"Oh, you haven't cared about me from the first time I was arrested while you were in charge. You could care less about who takes care of me, or if I'm alone."

"It's true that you have given me many headaches, kid, but that's not going to stop me from meeting the Avengers, and this is the perfect excuse to do so." She said, and Sienna's blood boiled.

"You are doing all this, even pretending to care about me all morning just so you could meet them? That's really pathetic."

They pulled into a driveway and Sally turned to face her in her seat. "Listen here you little nightmare, I _will_ meet them today and they _will_ like me. You _will not_ ruin this for me, you got that?" Sienna wanted to respond, but was cut off before she could, "now, we are going to go inside now, and we will sit and wait until lunch time and then we will go back to your new home. Got it?"

The next few hours would be absolute hell if they were fighting the entire time, so she didn't say anything and just got out of the car, following her into the house.

She sat completely still the entire time she was there, and never answered any of Sally's probing questions about the Avengers.

"So what are they like without the suits on?"

"What do they do with you?"

"Are any of the known single ones dating?"

"Is Steve dating?"

"Do you think it was a pity thing, them taking you in?"

Though that last one hurt her, she didn't say anything. Sure, she may have thought that once or twice, but she never voiced those opinions. She distracted herself and helped herself not to cry by using all her brainpower to focus on getting the requisition out of her pocket and into the couch she was sitting on. It was cluttered with stuff, and she didn't think Sally would ever really find it, and when she did, there would be too many food and drink stains on it that it would make it impossible to read.

Finally, around noon, they headed back to the Avengers building. On the way there, Sally kept berating her with hurtful questions.

"I mean, it had to be a pity thing, right? They can't actually want you to be with them otherwise, right? I mean, look at you, you're a mess. You think you look good in that outfit, you're too skinny, you're a flight risk, a criminal, what would people as good and good looking as them want with you?"

Finally, Sienna hit her verbal abuse limit. Perfect timing, too, as they were almost back. "You know what? I don't know why they took me in, but they genuinely seem to have an interest in me. So far, they have shown me more compassion than all but one of my other foster homes, have given me actual boundaries and guidelines, and are trying to help me! They've put me in summer school that I will likely be starting soon, and they are doing all this out of their own pockets, not off of government handouts. You, on the other hand, are a despicable human being. But not everyone is like you. You may not give a shit about me, but what do I care? I need you for rides and to see me out of this system, but that is it. I can call and get a different worker if I try hard enough, or if I get them to call for me. Think of the power the Avengers would have compared to yours. So I don't need you at all, really." Saying it all out loud made her a little sad she still wanted to leave, but running away seemed like the best option for not losing people by forces outside of your control.

"Listen here you little shit." She said, grabbing Sienna's arm before she could open her door to leave. "I can have you pulled from these people in a heartbeat. You think they care about you? Well how would you feel if you never got to see them again? Because I guarantee, I can make that happen faster than you can get a new worker. You'll be taken from here and thrown back in jail for the rest of your juvenile life, and I might even be able to get a restraining order for you against them, so you would _never_ be able to see them again, even when you get out. Now if you don't want that to happen, you will not mention any of this to them, but will instead be behaved and at least try to talk me up in front of them, alright? I tried to be nice with you this morning so you would do it naturally, but now you have made me resort to this. I can ruin your life, Sienna Montgomery. Remember that."

Sienna was choking back tears. She didn't know if anything she said was true, but she absolutely did not want to risk it. The Avengers were one of the best families she's had, as much as she hates to admit it because it made running away harder, but she cannot afford to lose them in that way. She may have fought tooth and nail to come here, and would give anything for her freedom again, but she wanted that on her own terms, not Sally's. Sure, she was planning on running away, but her doing the running is a lot easier to swallow than being forcefully removed. She wanted to leave before anyone else in her life could leave her, and Sally removing her from their care was losing people again on someone else's terms.

"Fine. Have it your way. But I refuse to talk you up. You can do that yourself. I won't say anything bad, but I refuse to lie to them about you." She ripped her arm from Sally's grip. "You shouldn't be working with children."

With that, she opened her door and got out, walking briskly towards the doors with Sally following close behind. When they got in, Steve was in the kitchen, making lunch for himself. She didn't even look at him.

"Sally, Steve. Steve, Sally." And walked to her room.

Once there, she locked the door, pushed the dresser in front of it, and then her bed and desk in front of that, making it go all the way across the room, so even if they tried to, they wouldn't be able to force her door open.

Then, she sat on her bed and cried.

 **Certain parts of this I wasn't too happy with, but I made it to the point I wanted to go, and that's the main thing. Comment your predictions/wishes for this story, and I'll try to add them (with possibly my own spin on them because they don't always fit with my vision of the characters/story). Character reminder: Steve is a good guy who will listen to explanations before punishing anyone.**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Is she alright?" Steve asked first thing after Sienna left, wanting to go after her but not wanting to leave Sally in the kitchen alone. "Did the appointment go okay?"

"As far as I know. She didn't tell me anything was wrong. She's just been moody for me our whole trip," Sally responded, seething inside, but figured that she could likely talk herself up.

"I'm very sorry to hear that. I'll talk to her later."

"Oh, it's alright. She's always like that with me."

"No, it isn't alright. And I will let her know that."

Sally smiled in thanks, looking down.

"So, like she said, I'm Steve. I'm legally the foster parent." Steve shook her hand, and then motioned to the dining room table. "Shall we sit?"

"Sure!" She said, following his motion, and sitting on the chair he pulled out for her. He sat close by, and leaned in.

"So Sienna said you were her worker temporarily?" Steve asked, "and also that we should have met you?"

Sally smiled and looked down at that, trying to feign a sorry-ness she didn't feel. "Yeah, I heard she was moving again, but she's one of my older clients and I was dealing with a younger family. I kept meaning to come and check on her, but my hands have been quite full, and, I'm ashamed to say, I completely forgot. And yeah, her worker is on leave for a while, so I'm the temporary one."

Steve seemed to believe this, and nodded. "No, I'm sure you're very busy over there. We've been getting into a rhythm over here, and we only have the one, I can't imagine what it's like when people are always moving."

"Yeah, the older kids move a lot, although none as often as Sienna, she just seems to rebel against everyone and run away, and no one wants that, especially when they have other children in the home. The younger ones I try to focus on more, since they aren't as used to it, and they have a tendency to not be as vocal to what they need than the older ones do."

"Yeah that makes sense. God, I can't imagine being without a family as a child, it must really mess with someone's self-worth." Sally nodded, but didn't really agree, since she didn't have a family as a child and turned out okay. "Anyways, I want to talk about Sienna, since she's the one we're caring for here. I know quite a bit about rebellion, we've certainly had that here, but it's also harder to run away, but you must know her better than I do."

In all reality, she didn't think that was true, but would never tell him that. "She's just an angry kid. Constantly pushing people away, not letting anyone be close to her, that kind of thing."

"We haven't seen as much of that, here." Tony said, coming into the room. "I'm Tony Stark, by the way."

Sally stood up to shake his hand. "Sally, Sienna's worker. And yes, that's typically how it starts. She tries to gain the trust of the people she's with, so she can get away with things, and then everything turns sour."  
"Sour? How so?" Steve wanted to nip that in the bud if he could, and actually have a lasting and good relationship with Sienna. Tony looked genuinely interested as well.

"Well, every house she would start at has told me how much of a model citizen and guest she was at first, but within a month, she was a total nightmare. Refusing to eat – it's good you guys got her to do that again – claiming she just wasn't hungry, refusing to help out around the house, never abided by the rules set by the parents, wouldn't tell them where she was going or when she would come back, school was the one place that she did well, when she wasn't running away. In desperate need of attention, but not liking any amount of it when she got it."

"Oh wow, we didn't know. She's been pretty good so far for us, with a few exceptions. She really likes her freedom." Steve said, thinking back to that first day.

"Oh yes. The foster parents just couldn't take the worrying whenever she'd run away. And they never knew if she would run for just a night, or longer. That's why they told me they'd hold off on calling the police and reporting her missing sometimes. They didn't want to seem like bad foster parents since she ran off so much, and didn't want to cause the police too much trouble if she was just planning on returning within a day or two anyways. That's why she ended up in group homes before you guys, because the foster parents just couldn't handle it anymore."

"I think between all of us, we'll be good at making sure she doesn't run away. We don't want to be another home that abandons her." Tony said.

"Speaking of that, now that I'm thinking of it, you really can't leave her alone for long periods of time without telling us. She could hurt herself, run away, and you wouldn't even know it. There must be someone home with her, or she will be placed in temporary care while you guys leave."

"We will let you know next time we all have to leave. It wasn't planned this time." Steve said, getting defensive of his decisions.

"I know it's not planned, but, believe it or not, despite everything, I actually really like this girl, and I want to make sure she's safe."

Steve smiled, "yes, we understand. And come by whenever to make sure she's alright. And we'll give you as much warning as we can to when we're leaving, and maybe leave her here to be picked up if it's an emergency."

"That sounds like a good plan." Sally said, then looked at her phone. "Well, would you look at the time! I have to go pick up another kid, but I'll keep in touch."

"Yes, of course." Steve said, standing up, and showing her to the door. "Thank you for stopping by, and for telling us more about her. We really appreciate it."

Sally smiled at Steve, then left.

"I don't trust her." Steve said as soon as she left, but Tony frowned.

"Who are we to judge her though? I'm sure she knows what she is talking about, and the stories she was telling us make sense compared to the Sienna we know. We've barely had her a month, or rather, we've barely been here a month with her, she could change at any moment. Where is she, anyway?"

Steve sighed. "She went right to her room after they got here. Sally said she gets moody with her whenever they're together."

"Well we know the moodiness isn't a new thing. She spends half her life moody or thinking about being moody. And this could be the start of her rebellion with us."

"I know, and I'm going to talk to her about it. Tell her she can't be too moody with Sally, no matter how much she may not like her, because that's not how you treat a person. And we can also keep an eye on her. Too much rebellion can be solved with a firm hand."

"Don't I know it." Tony said, subconsciously rubbing his rear, remembering the last time he 'rebelled' with Ultron and with creating Vision. Steve hadn't been too kind to both his and Bruce's rear, although Bruce ran away before he could get in too much trouble for creating Vision. Steve knew Vision was an important creation in their victory, but keeping it from Steve and going against his direct orders had been one of his least good plans, right behind creating Ultron and giving his home address to people who wanted to kill him.

"I'm going to go talk to her." Steve said, breaking Tony out of his trance.  
"I'll join you." Tony said, and followed him to Sienna's room.

They knocked when they got there, but received no answer. Tony stepped up again, knocking while calling out "Sienna, I know you're in there. What did I say about answering the door when we knock?"

"I don't want to talk to you." Sienna said, remembering Tony said she could say no.

"You're going to have to talk to us eventually. Why don't we do it sooner rather than later?"

"No." Sienna said, hoping they would just go away.

"Fine." Tony said at the door, and then turned to Steve. "I told her she could deny us entry if she needed to, as long as it wasn't a pressing matter. Why don't we let her cool off a bit, and resume this before supper?"

"Alright." Steve said, and raised his voice so Sienna could hear him. "Sienna we'll be back before supper to talk about this."  
He didn't get a response, but didn't really need to. He knew she was upset, and based on his evaluation of Sally, that made perfect sense.

SM

Sienna stayed in her bed all day, curled up on her side, crying. And when she didn't have the energy to continue that, she just lay there, thinking.

She knew they wouldn't be able to get in, her door was blocked through to the other side of the room, so she would be alone for a while, and that comforted her. If they couldn't get in, they couldn't take her away, couldn't get mad at her for anything Sally told them. Sally was sure to have either told them horrible things by that point, and maybe even gone home and put in the request to have her removed. Both options sickened Sienna to a point where she went to the bathroom and curled up by the toilet, thinking she was going to be sick.

Her life just wasn't fair. She lost her parents young, lost her first foster parents not long after, was put into horrible foster care after horrible foster care, was, for the entirety of her short teenage life, being sought by cops, then finally thrown in jail. Now, she's in a decent foster home, but they're going to die doing their jobs and leave her, too. There's nothing she wants more than a normal life, and she needs to figure out a way to leave and start one as soon as possible, but until then, wallowing alone in her room feels right.

It's nearly five when she hears knocking on her door again, and then Steve's voice. "Sienna, we need to talk."

She can barely call out a 'no' from her spot on the bathroom floor, but she knows he heard her, somehow.

"Yes, Sienna, open up."

She cleared her throat a bit before speaking up again. "No."

This time, she heard Tony's voice, "Sienna, I told you we would respect your privacy, but we really need to talk to you."  
"No."

She heard the doorknob jiggle, and then a voice asks Friday to unlock the door.

"I'm afraid that would be futile, sir. She's barricaded herself in. Unlocking the door would not allow you access."

She heard an angry sigh come from the door, and got up to move closer to it.

"I don't want to talk to you!" Sienna said, as forcefully as she could muster.

"Sienna, move everything out of the way and let us in or so help me-" Steve said, but was cut off by Nat.

"Sienna, we just want to talk. That's it. You aren't in trouble if you open up right now."

She still didn't budge.

"Wanda, can you move the furniture out of the way for us, please?" Steve asked, sighing, and she started to cry silently. Damn those guys and their abilities.

"I don't want to break her trust." Wanda said, and then she heard light footsteps walking away.

She heard another sigh, then Tony just said "Vision?"

Seconds later, Vision came into her room, and she gasped. She had forgotten that he could do that. "Please." She whispered, and he looked at her sincerely.

He motioned for her to walk back towards her bathroom, and he called out to Steve. "Captain Rogers, I will speak to her. See if she will move her furniture herself."

In the bathroom, he shut the door, and motioned for her to sit along the farthest wall from the door. "Speak in quiet tones, so they don't hear anything you don't want them to."

She nodded.

"Now, why have you barricaded yourself in your room?" Vision asked, sitting beside her.  
"They can't take me away if I won't come out." She whispered, looking at his very oddly coloured face. "And I don't know what Sally told them. I may be in trouble, or they may not want me anymore."

"They are not planning on sending you away, and as for trouble, you will not know until you let them in." Vision said, smiling slightly.

"I'm sure Sally has lied to them enough that they will do something I don't believe I deserve." Sienna mumbled back, looking at her feet. "Or has put in a request to have me moved. She wanted me to talk her up to you guys, and I didn't."

"She did not seem like the kind of person who would do such a thing, based on what I overheard."

"She is much different with those she is trying to impress than those who she has full control over."

He seemed to think about this for a while. "So you wish to stay with us? I thought you wanted to leave. You wanted your freedom."

"It's not freedom if you're forced to go and it's not on your terms. Plus, I wouldn't be free. I'd be in a prison, or whatever."

"Sometimes you must let go of one wish, to receive the other." He said.

"What does that mean?"

"Maybe you should give up your quest for freedom, and let us help you. Maybe eventually with us, you could do most everything on your terms." He said, and she thought about it. "Also, if you are looking to not return to a prison, you probably should not barricade yourself into solitude in your room, imprisoning yourself."

"I can't leave here. I can't remove those pieces of furniture. If I do, they'll come and get me, and take me away. You guys won't be able to do anything about it because it'll be the law. And you guys uphold the law, not break it." She said, then whispered softly, "and I can't lose more people."

He got up then and left her sitting on the floor. But, instead of moving her furniture, he just walked right through her walls again, and she didn't hear any more knocks on her door.

SM

Vision brought her in food and so for the next three days, she stayed in her room, doing nothing but drawing, restlessly sleeping and eating. No one tried else to get in. Not even Wanda tried to talk to her through the walls.

On the morning of the fourth day, when Vision brought in her breakfast, he brought up opening the door again.

"They are just worried about you at this point." He said, placing the food on her table, "and Sally has not contacted us. I do not believe that anyone is on their way to take you away."

"You aren't just lying to trick me into coming out?" Sienna asked, unsure.

"The world is not against you, Sienna. Many of us wish to see you succeed. I am one of those… people."

Sienna smiled at his description. He was not a person, but that was the closest thing to what he was that he could call himself.

"You're sure nothing bad will happen to me?"

"I am not sure of anything. But at the moment, the most you'll have to go through is a talking to."

She thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. "Okay."

"They are all eating breakfast now, and then they are going to go to the training room. Why don't we put all your furniture back in its proper place, and surprise them?"

She didn't really like the idea of making a big deal out of it, but she conceded anyways.

She didn't really need to help him move everything, but it was something to do, so they moved everything back, and then he left her room through the door. "I will see you down there?"

Sienna nodded and grabbed some workout clothes. She was going to the training room, so why not?

Ten minutes later, she was standing outside the training room, dreading going in. She swallowed, and opened the door. It was actually to Sam's advantage, because she distracted Steve enough with her presence to let Sam pin him.

"Yes! My first time pinning Cap!" Sam shouted, and then was flipped over himself and pinned by Steve.

"Nice try." Steve said, then hopped up off him and came up to Sienna.

"Can I take part in some of the training, too?" Sienna asked, looking anywhere but in his eyes.

"Yeah, of course. Go stretch a bit, then we can start you on a bit of hand to hand combat."

SM

An hour later, she was punching special mitts on Steve's hands, and dodging (or trying to dodge, Steve had hit her lightly a couple of times when she didn't move fast enough) his swings.

"I think that's good for today." Steve said, and it really had been quite a bit. She was taught the proper stance, taught how to properly throw a punch, practiced a bit on a punching bag, and then Steve said she was doing well enough to practice with him.

She was quite tired from all of that, especially since she hadn't gotten a good night's sleep in a while, but hoped she would feel better after talking to them, and would be able to sleep then.

"Why don't you go shower and then come out to the living room? We need to have that talk."

"Okay."

She was so nervous about it that she didn't take a long shower at all. She jumped in, scrubbed all the grime off and hopped back out. She was actually sitting on the couch nervously for 10 minutes before Vision came in to sit beside her.  
"They will understand." He said simply, and patted her head.

"Are you sure? What did you tell them?" Sienna asked, looking up once he stopped petting her.

"Nothing. I told them you needed time and space, but that the rest was up to you to share. Now, whether Friday has told them anything is another question entirely."  
"I have not." The AI piped up from the ceiling, and Sienna felt tears coming to her eyes.

"Thank you, but I wish you had told them. Less on me, less chance for them not to believe me. I'm just a kid, after all."

Nat walked in then. "Just because you're young does not mean that you aren't trustworthy. In our jobs, we have to take all the information and evaluate it without bias, if we can, so we can properly help the situation. There will be a bit of bias in this situation, but it's more for you, not against you."

Sienna sniffled a bit, but still no tears fell. She was thankful for that. She wanted to seem credible, and she knew from that one time crying in court that that did not make you seem credible really at all. At least not that one time she was there.

Everyone else came in after that, and Sienna sighed. This wasn't something she wanted to share with everyone, but she didn't think there was anything she could do about it.

"Why don't we start with what Sally told us?" Tony asked, and Sienna nodded. She wanted to be caught up to speed. He told her everything he could remember of what Sally said, watching her face for reactions. She just looked at her lap and said nothing throughout it all.

"Sienna?" Steve asked, and she looked up at him briefly, to gauge his reaction. "Just because she told us that, doesn't mean we believe it entirely. You have to tell us your side. Personally, I don't trust her, but Tony thought some of what she was saying made sense. You have to give us your side or else we'll never know."

Sienna looked back down at her lap, and all but mumbled her response. "Sally hates me. She always has. When she took over my case from my worker, she was upset because I had so many infractions. That I wouldn't be easy and just keep my mouth shut and tolerate my life until I turned of age. Probably didn't help that I was on the run when she took over my case, and the first interaction I ever had with her was her picking me up from the police station a couple weeks later."

She heard a couple muffled snorts, but kept going. "But how was I supposed to know? I had filed numerous complaints about my other worker, and nothing was ever done until that point. Unfortunately, Sally is worse than her. She berated me the entire way back to the foster home, but when we showed up, the parents didn't even know who I was, hadn't even known I was missing. When Sally explained the situation to them, they agreed to take me back for the night while Sally arranged a group home. I think she picked some of the worst ones possible, because after that first one, I ran away, and I actually kicked the cop to try and get away so I wouldn't go back. It wasn't abusive, but emotionally it wasn't a good place. They made us clean incessantly, but somehow it was always dirty. I showered maybe once a week because we had to conserve water, the food was locked up so we wouldn't snack unless it was suppertime, and our rooms were locked at night so we couldn't escape. I left that one when I was supposed to go to school. Sally would have put me back there after picking me up from the police station, but the cops had shut it down once they finally listened to my begging, and investigated. She yelled the whole way back to the office, and told me I could sleep there for the night in her office while she found another place for me to live. It was just a string of bad homes, not much better than the previous ones, and I couldn't stay there. Plus, living on my own was a haven. So I never did run away or give too much attitude in the beginning. I always gave a fair chance, but once you come to accept that you can't rely on anyone but yourself, sure you get bitter. I guess the one thing that was good about Sally was that she didn't like me and so would put me in those horrible homes. They were the places that were really bad at keeping me there. Places that cared more or were more high-tech would have kept me jailed there. Luckily, I always seemed to be in places that wouldn't notice that I left. I would usually leave after school one day, and come back the next, and if they didn't notice, I knew I could do whatever I wanted."

Steve moved to sit right beside me, and rubbed my back a bit. "Sienna, I know you said that you were not in abusive homes, but what you just described to me is abusive, on both Sally's negligence and the homes' tendency to lock you up."  
"But they never hit me, never left a mark on my body." Sienna said, looking up at Steve.

Rhodey spoke up then, and he never really interjected. She turned to him. "That doesn't matter. You just described abuse to me, to all of us. It doesn't have to be physical in the way you expect, but those were not healthy homes."

Sienna just nodded a bit, and looked down at her lap again.

Tony spoke up this time. "Sally certainly has a way with manipulation, I'll give her that. I believe you, too."

Sienna smiled a bit, but sighed again. "She told me to talk her up in front of you, and to not say anything to you. She said she would have me taken away, and get restraining orders so you couldn't get near me again. I disrespected both those things." Sienna broke out into a little sob then. "She's going to have me taken away."

"We will fight that as much as we can." Steve said, "and so far, there has been no indication that that is going to happen."

She wiped her tears from her face, and looked up at him with more hope than she had put in an adult in a long time, "really? You'll fight for me?"

"Of course we will, Tink." Sam said from across the room. "You're like family now."

Everyone bobble headed that.

"We will get rid of Sally for you, don't you worry." Tony said, completely hating that he believed her for even a second.

"Yeah!" Nat said, already coming up with a million different ways to make her disappear off the map.

"Legally. Without killing her. We'll do it safely." Steve said, before anyone got too excited. "But until then, if you have to deal with her, please be as kind as you can. Regardless of what she has done, I told her I would talk to you about that, and you need to respect her, even if she doesn't respect you."

"Well let's just hope that there is no need for you to see her." Tony said, not knowing how she was supposed to be respectful to that woman.

Feeling 100% lighter and stress-free after their talk, she sagged into Steve a bit, feeling her eyelids get heavy. She heard Vision say, "I told you if you let go of one thing, you would get another."

Yeah, well she wasn't giving up her quest for freedom just yet, but taking Sally down would be enough for her for now. She trusted them enough to help her do that. Her nap consisted of the different ways she dreamt it might happen.

SM

Unfortunately, a week later, there was no indication that they were going to do anything any time soon. Steve got her started on summer school, but that was it. She didn't hear any more planning or scheming to get rid of Sally, and hadn't heard that they had taken her away, and she was getting a new worker.

"Hey Sam," she said, bounding up to him one afternoon."  
"Yes, Tink?" He asked, smiling. "You got ants in your pants?"

She was jumping around a bit, excited. "Have you guys figured out what's happening with Sally?"

"Oh, don't you mind that. We've figured it out. Just waiting on figuring out a way to execute it. Waiting for the right moment."  
"Seize the moment! It's now! It's not like she's well covered. Call her over here, call the cops, and arrest her."  
"Don't worry about it, Tink. You're going to be okay no matter what. Believe that."

"But Sam! Why don't you just get it done?"

He stopped joking around. "No, Sienna. You have to trust us. We all talked about it, and that isn't the best course of action."

"But-" she was cut off by him turning her around and swatting the seat of her jeans a couple times.

"Sienna, you have to stop. We know what we're doing."

She was so frustrated with that answer, she walked off to her room, and tried to slam the door, but it was caught by Wanda's telekinesis and closed quietly.

There was a knock at her wall. She walked over. "Tolerance for slammed doors is not high." She just said simply, and Sienna huffed.

"Thanks for the warning." She said, and walked away.

She lay on her bed, thinking, when suddenly a brilliant idea popped into her head. If they wouldn't take care of this in her time, she would have to be the one to do it.

 **That's it, that's all! For now. I've already written half of the next chapter so that should be up soon. Hope you enjoyed! Also I only had about 7 minutes to edit this so please forgive me.**


	14. Chapter 14

**I have no idea what happened here, but I needed to wrap up this storyline and this is what I came up with. Hoping to be better soon, haha… but without further ado, here's this:**

She had concocted a plan. She would go to her apartment to pick up her old phone, then head to Sally's house, figure out her schedule, pop by somewhere where other kids had her as their worker, record their horror stories of her (Sienna couldn't be the only one with a bad experience with her) and then go straight to the police station. After hearing all that from her and other kids, surely they would have to arrest Sally, or at least put her under investigation, and then she would finally be free. Well, free to another worker.

She was so excited about this plan, and was so sure it would work, she woke up at 3:30. She wrote a letter, not explaining her plan but saying that she would be back later, and opened up her window as much as she could. She was on the second floor, so she used the sheets to create a sort of rope and climbed down, surprised and glad that Friday hadn't mentioned anything yet.

Once on the ground, she ran for the forest, and then kept herself just outside of the line of sight of the road and anyone on it, and found her way into town. She used some of the cash she had taken from her room to get a bus, ran into her apartment, grabbed the food that had long since expired, threw it out, and grabbed her old phone, turning it on for the first time in years.

She had to plug it in to charge the battery a bit, but once she was sure it was working, she caught a cab and headed to Sally's house. Her car wasn't there, so she picked the lock and went inside. There, she found tons of incriminating evidence against Sally, so she took pictures of that, and also found information about where she would be that morning on her calendar.

She left the house, locking it back up, and caught another cab to the group home's address. She gave the taxi driver the last of her money, so she wondered how she'd get back, but decided on figuring that out later. Once she saw Sally's car in the driveway, all other worries fled her mind and she focused on the task at hand. She walked around to the kids she could hear in the back, listened for any adults, and hopped the fence.

"Who are you?" A girl, about 12, asked. "And why are you here?"

"My name is Sienna, and I'm here to help you. Who here has Sally Greenberg as their worker?" A few people raised their hands. "Who actually likes her?" They all put their hands down.

"Okay, well I want to get her fired. She's mine too, and I won't stand for that verbal abuse anymore. Can I record you guys; have you tell me what she's done to you? I'm going to report her to the police."

Everyone smiled at that, and all of Sally's clients, and even some people who had just been too close to her when she got mad, sat around her, and she recorded all of their testimonies. It was when a young girl named Sarah, age 8 and a half, was giving her testimony, that Sally and the group home caretaker walked out.

"She told me my mommy and daddy weren't coming back and no one would want me, but she lied, right? She lied. A nice family will want me some day-" Sarah was saying, but was cut off.

"What the hell are you doing here you little bitch?"

The caretaker of the home, who was admittedly better than any group home provider she had ever had, spoke up at that. "Sally, the children. Please use words everyone is allowed to repeat. But that being said, who are you? Why are you here? I'm going to call the police."

"You do that. I don't care. The cops and I are friendly, and I promise you I am not here to hurt your children. I am here to help you." Then she turned to Sarah, wanting to answer her question from before. "Yes, she lied to you. Don't worry."

Sally walked right up to her and slapped her across the face. Everyone gasped. Luckily, Sienna had quickly hidden her phone in her pocket when Sally came out, with the camera pointed outward, and the sound of the slap was definitely caught.

"How dare you do this? How dare you show up here. I should call your foster parents and have them come and fetch you, and then I will be able to go home and make sure you are immediately removed from their care, and sent straight back to juvi."

The caretaker was on her phone, and called out to the two women in a stand-off. "The police are on their way."

Sarah ran up and hit Sally in the leg, but, luckily for Sally, Sally didn't hit her back.

"You little brat." She said, instead. "You think violence is going to make you more desirable to a family? You are never _ever_ going to be adopted."

"Listen, witch." Sienna said, stepping in between all the kids and Sally, pushing Sarah behind her protectively. "I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You are not meant to be working with children. You are a despicable, hateful human being-"

The caretaker cut her off, stepping between Sienna and Sally. "And you will never – ever – represent my babies again. I am going to report you, and everything you've said and done here. If you aren't jailed for this, you will at least never be allowed within 10 metres of any child in the foster system. You have my word. How _dare_ you tell a child they won't be adopted? Who do you think you are? God?"

Sally didn't know what to say to this and just stuttered under the woman's piercing glare. Sienna wanted to cheer, but then the woman rounded on her and she gulped.

"And you! Who are you? And what gives you the right to trespass on my property?"

Sienna immediately went into defense mode. "I'm so sorry! I wasn't really thinking. I just saw on her calendar that Sally was here, so I knew the children she dealt with were, too. I was videotaping their testimonies as evidence to bring to the police to have her arrested. I couldn't take it anymore." She pulled out the phone in her pocket and flipped it to show the caretaker.

"Wait, how'd you see my calendar? Were you _in my house_?" Sally screeched, attempting to launch herself at Sienna. The caretaker kept herself in the middle of them though, and Sienna couldn't be touched by Sally.

"That can be resolved later." The caretaker said, and sternly looked at Sienna. "I know what you have been dealing with. I see it now. I can assure you that this woman will no longer be your worker, but you have trespassed on my property and endangered my children in doing so. I am sorry, but I will have to call your foster parents. I will not press charges against you when the police arrive, especially given the situation, but I would like to organize some off the record community service from you." Sienna nodded, thinking that that was fair. Except calling her foster parents would be hard though, since she didn't know their number.

"Oh, no." Sally said, coming around the worker to yell at both of them. She was already backed into a pretty tight corner, and didn't see a way out, and thought that she would take anyone she could along with her. " _I_ am going to be pressing charges against her for breaking and entering into my home. She will go to jail and be locked up for a very long time. Her foster parents will not be able to do a thing for her. So you may as well press charges, too, since she will not be able to fulfill her community service duties to you."

"How her and I arrange our issue is our problem, not yours. You need'nt concern yourself with that. You'll have bigger fish to worry about, anyways." As if on cue, the doorbell rang, and the eldest kid was sent to answer it and bring the cop to the backyard.

"Oh good, Sienna Montgomery, the station's favourite flight risk." Officer Graham said as soon as he saw her, but he was smiling. "I didn't think you'd be running away for a while now, what with your new placement."

"It's not a runaway, Doug. It's more of a takedown." Sienna replied, smiling at him.

"Officer, _she_ broke into my home, found out where I was going to be, and came here to threaten me!"

"Sienna is that true?" He asked, smile disappearing.

"Sort of…" Sienna said, looking down.  
"Not entirely, officer. We haven't gotten the full story yet, but my impression is that she is here to get enough incriminating evidence against her social worker to have her arrested. I feel as though she has succeeded in this. I have been witness to enough, but she also has evidential video on her phone."

"Lemme see." He said to Sienna, holding out his hand. She knew him well enough, he was actually the one she had kicked in order to get away one time, that she felt comfortable walking up to him and just showing him the end of the video.

It was bad. Sally knew it was bad. She heard herself yelling, and knew she was done for. She looked like she wanted to run, but then Officer Graham said, "you're the social worker?" to which he got a nod from everyone around him, and just read her her rights as he cuffed her.

"Wait! I want her charged, too." Sally yelled, motioning towards Sienna. "She broke into my home!"

SM

Twenty minutes later, Sienna was cuffed an in the back of Officer Graham's patrol car. The caretaker, whose name was Debbie, said she would follow once she sent her kids to school, and promised Sienna over and over that she would be okay. She really was the kind of caretaker Sienna wished she had had all those years ago, fair and kind. She probably wouldn't be in the same situation if she did.

Officer Graham had called for another patrol car, which Sally was placed in, and he confiscated Sienna's phone as evidence, promising to give it back (to the teary eyed Sienna after hearing that one of the last presents her parents had given her was being taken away) once evidence was collected.

He drove her to the station, but spoke jovially with her the entire time. "So, how have you been?"

"Well, now that this is over with, and it looks like she's going away for good, I'm great!" Sienna replied happily, leaning forwards as far as the seatbelt would let her, to get closer to Officer Graham. "How's the wife?"

"Pregnant, actually. With twins."

"Oh really? Congratulations! If one's a girl, Sienna is a really great and unique name."

He laughed at that. "I'll keep that in mind." Then, he turned it back around on her. "Where have you been lately? It's been quite a while since we saw you last. Heard you ended up in a new foster home."

She nodded. "Yeah. They're different than most homes I've been in, haven't even been able to try to run away. Don't even know how I did this, though it probably blew my chances of that for quite a while now."

"Glad to hear they're actually keeping track of you, but are they good people?" He asked, knowing that he's returned her to some less than favourable homes, but wasn't able to do anything about it, since he had had no evidence.

Sienna wanted to laugh. He basically just asked her if the Avengers were good people. "I think so. Seem to like me enough. Called me family the other day…"

"Well that's awesome, Sienna! Do you think this may be a foster-to-adopt type of situation?"

Sienna would have done a spit take if she had been drinking anything. "No! I don't think so. I think they're just good people who want to help out. And besides, I don't want any more parents. When I'm 18, I will finally be on my own."

"But that's not a fun way to live." He said sadly.

"No, but it wasn't fun losing my parents when I was 12. This is easier. Can't lose more people this way."

He looked at me with sadness in his eyes before pulling into a Dairy Queen. "Dipped Cone?"

She guessed he was trying to make her feel better, and since she hadn't even had breakfast that morning, she happily agreed. No use arguing something he couldn't convince her to change her mind on.

When they got to the station, he began the process she knew too well, and wrote up the paperwork needed for the charges against her to be set up.

"So I'm going to need the number of the people I can contact, to have them come and get you. I don't think with the charges against Sally that yours are going to hold up, as what you did was likely warranted, and she's just a little too crazy to believe, anyways."

"Uh… I don't have it. Haven't had a reason to need it yet, and I only just got my phone back today. You may have it though."

"Why would I have it already?"

"Do the police not have the number to reach the Avengers?"

SM

Wanda awoke that morning to commotion, and then her door flying open.

"Did Sienna tell you where she was going?" Steve asked, entering her room, holding a note. She took it from him to figure out what he meant.

"No, I hadn't heard anything about this. I just stopped her yesterday from slamming her door, but we didn't talk much other than that."

Steve angrily took the note back, and then stormed out of the room. Wanda followed closely behind, running after him to catch up.

"Friday, I need the footage of her leaving and any information you have on where she went. And also I'd like to know why you didn't alert anyone that this was happening."

Friday put up the footage on the closest screen to Steve and said, "This is not a jail, Captain. Even the best foster homes in the world don't have something like me, and it is not fair on her to be constantly monitored. If you ask me where she is and I know, I will tell you. But I will not alert you to other things, unless she is putting her life at risk."

"And her climbing out a window isn't life threatening?"

"She seemed to have it under complete control."

Steve sighed. Wanda watched in awe at the loop of her friend making her bed sheet rope, using it to scale the building, and running into the forest.

"She's quite stealthy." Nat said, coming up behind them. "I'll give her that."

"I'll give her a whole lot more than that when I find her." Steve said angrily.

Wanda walked away then, a little intimidated by Steve's anger. On top of the worry she felt for her missing friend, she was worried about her no longer being missing, and having to deal with that.

She bumped in to Sam in the hallway. "You're up early." He said, eyebrows raised.

"You haven't heard? Sienna ran away." Wanda said, and watched his features turn dark. "You should talk to Steve. I'm going to call Clint. See if maybe he's heard anything, or if she turned up there for some reason."

SM  
She wasn't at Clint's home, but he said he would come to the city to look for her if they needed him to.

"No, I think we're okay. I hear orders being barked out from people all around the compound, so I think we're going to go look for her. I'll keep you updated."

"Please do."

With that, she hung up the phone, and went to go investigate what the plan was.

"Oh good, Wanda, you're back. You're going to stay here and wait to see if she comes back. Pepper is on her way from the Tower to keep you company. Let us know the second you hear something." Tony said, looking up from his phone just long enough to acknowledge her.

"Why can't I come out and look with you?"

"We don't want to spark suspicion flying around, so we're all taking separate cars. You can't drive, so you can't come."

"But I can look out the passenger side window!" She said, and they all considered it.

"Okay, fine. That's a better plan anyway. Everyone will split into teams of two, and Friday can alert us if anything happens here. Wanda you're with Nat, Vision you're with Rhodey. Sam, you're with me. Pepper will be with Tony when she gets here."

Everyone nodded their agreement and headed out, or waited for their partner to arrive, within thirty minutes.

Nat drove around a bit, keeping half her attention on the road and the other half on the sides, looking for evidence.

"Stop!" Wanda yelled, and pointed. Nat pulled over and Wanda went to investigate the footprints she saw. "She was here. I'm sure of it. If we can follow this trail, we can figure out where she went."

Nat pointed down the street. "Probably went to the bus station just over there."

"She could have gone anywhere, then." Wanda said sadly, discouraged.

"Along the bus route. We can follow the next one and see where it goes. Maybe she's along its path.

Wanda nodded, but couldn't help but think that she could have gotten off and taken any number of other modes of transportation to her destination.

They followed the bus for a couple of hours before the phone rang.  
"Hello?" Nat answered, speaking into the Bluetooth.

"Friday let us know that there was a voicemail on the receiver. Police picked her up, we're going to get her now. Steve says we shouldn't cause a big commotion and for you guys to wait at home." Sam said into the receiver.

"Is she okay?" Wanda asked.

"I don't know. Seemed fine in the message, but we don't have any part of the story yet." Sam answered. "We'll be sure to get to the bottom of it when we get home at the very least."

That seemed to Wanda to be a play on words. They would likely be getting to the bottom of two things, and Wanda feared for her friend because she knew that one bottom would be feeling the heat very soon.

SM

"Well, yes, we do. Somewhere." Officer Graham said, but didn't move to find it right away. "But… _they're_ your foster parents?"

"I fainted when they told me they wanted to be. Mind you, I was severely lacking in any nutrients, so that may have been the reason why."

"Superheroes. Fostering. Huh." Officer Graham said, but then moved to look for the number. He'd seen weirder things.

When he found it, he wrote it down and handed Sienna the phone and number. "Your one phone call, my dear."

She dialed the number into the phone, and got the answering machine. "I think they're out saving the world or something. They're not at home. Oh wait, I'm getting the answering machine. She waited for Friday to accept the collect call, and then spoke clearly, "hey guys, It's Sienna. Good news, Sally is in jail. Bad news, so am I. Long story, but you're going to laugh when you hear it. Anyways, please come get me."

She left the address to the station, then hung up.

"I don't think superheroes laugh when their charges get arrested." Officer Graham told her seriously.

"A girl can dream. Maybe, they'll be gone for so long, they'll come back and be so worried they left me in here for so long that they'll come and get me and just be happy!"

"Or if they're as good of foster parents as you say they are, they're out looking for you right now and will be here as soon as they can to collect you, and be pretty mad about it."  
"That's a scenario I don't want to think about because then I'll be in a whole lot more trouble than I can care to admit. I haven't lived with them two months, and already I've been grounded a week."

"Well I can only imagine what you did to deserve that versus what happened today. Maybe they'll go easy on you. You should claim you were under extreme duress."

"Good plan." Sienna said, glad to see she had a cop seemingly on her side.

He put her in a holding cell and went back to his desk, filling out paperwork as he talked to her.

"Where's Sally?" She asked, looking around. She was glad she wasn't in here with her, but she didn't see her in the other holding cell.

"We had to take her to a different location, because of the circumstances." Officer Graham said, "it is very likely you won't see her until a trial, and your testimonies on your phone may be enough to prevent even that."

Just then, another officer came in the back, bringing Steve and Sam along with him. Both of them wearing the scariest expression Sienna had ever seen on either of them.

She refused to be the one to break the silence. She had no idea what to say, and really, what could she say?

"I'm her foster father." Steve said, turning to Officer Graham. "Steve Rogers, this is another of her caretakers, Sam Wilson."

"It's great to meet you, sir." Sienna had to hold in her laughter at Officer Graham's bewildered face. It wasn't hard, though, as Sam hadn't turned to him and was still staring her down. "We should be able to put in the paperwork to get her processed as quickly as possible, and I believe bail should be set soon.

"Bail? What for?" Sam asked, finally taking his eyes off Sienna to look at Graham.

"Uh, well…" He clearly didn't want to be the one to break the news. "Breaking and entering."

"WHAT?!" Steve said, looking at Sienna and stalking closer to the cell. She backed away.

"Uh, Officer Graham. I'd like to confess to murder. I don't know who, don't know how it happened, but it did. I'm not sorry I did it, either." She kept backing up as she spoke because even though Steve couldn't reach her anymore, everything she said was visibly making him angrier. Unfortunately for her, she just couldn't stop. "Really, anything that would make sure bail is taken away."

"Sienna, stop." Sam said, coming up from behind Steve. "Don't make this worse for yourself than it already is."

Officer Graham came up to the cell then. "Gentlemen, do you mind giving Ms. Montgomery and I some space? I need to speak with her in private."

Steve gave her a shooting glare before saying, "yeah, sure. Come on, Sam. I need to find some coffee."

"There's some in the break room! I'm sure another officer will let you have some!" Officer Graham called out as they left the back area. Then he turned back to her. "You really like digging yourself into a hole, don't you?"

"You want to tell me that if Capitan America came up to you, giving you the look that says you're in the most amount of trouble you've ever been in, you wouldn't do anything to try and get away?"

"No, I would be spewing apologies and trying to seem as innocent as possible." Officer Graham said, crossing his arms over his chest. "And never would I ever admit to murder. Because if it were anyone else in this precinct except for me, they would have had to believe you, and take you in. Fortunately for you, I know you were not being serious, and will not have to charge you with murder."

"I panicked." She said meekly, knowing that her reaction was not the best one in the world, but she couldn't help it.

"I know you did. But Sienna, we just talked about this. You gave me the impression that they were good people. And I know being grounded isn't fun, but there are worse things. Unless, you were lying? Do you not feel safe with them?" Officer Graham asked, concerned.

"No! That's not it. I feel totally safe with them. But they do more than just ground people and I'm a little worried about that. Plus, you saw the way the two of them reacted, think of how it would be with all of them. I can't handle that many people being mad."

"Well, you should have thought about that before breaking and entering into Sally's home. But what do they do that have you worried? I can help you if you give me enough cause to worry and file a complaint."

"It's nothing I want to share. Nothing too bad, in all honesty. Just makes sitting painful for a bit."  
She could see that he was struggling not to smile at that.  
"My dad would have had the same reaction, if he had to pick me up in jail at sixteen for what you did." He said, "and I get it, it's not the most welcome reaction, and to be honest I'm a little surprised, but that's a whole other issue, but you can't just opt to stay in here. Don't you think the consequences will be worse once you get out?"

"I guess…"

"So wouldn't it be better to just get it over with?"

"Well, no…"

He just laughed at her, then went back to his desk. "Good news! Bail has been set for $10. Given the situation, it looks like they think there was just cause. I'll call your guardians back in."

"Whoopie." Sienna muttered, going to sit against the far bed, but try to look remorseful for when Steve and Sam came back in.

They didn't make her wait long, and Officer Graham was filling them in on the whole situation.  
"So I showed up at the house, and lo and behold, Sienna is there. Some pleasantries were exchanged and then she showed me the video she took of her testimony and the children's. Had to bring her in because Sally was pressing charges, but that's it, really. She can be out on a $10 bail, and you probably won't hear from us about that again, Officer Geller is pretty convincing when she wants to be, and I'm pretty sure the charges will be dropped before you get back home."

Steve reached into his pocket. "Here's a $10. Can we attach it to her file, and go home?"

"That's not generally how we do it, but since it's so low, sure." Officer Graham said, accepting the money and attaching it to a clipboard. "I'm just going to sign some release papers, and you'll have to sign them too as legal guardian, and then she's free to go."

All too soon in Sienna's opinion, everything was set, and Officer Graham was opening the cell and taking off the cuffs.

"Come on Sienna," Steve said, motioning her forward, not outwardly showing any anger. She felt it was better to test him further, especially now that there was no lock in between her and him. She walked out, looking at the floor.

"'M sorry, Steve, Sam." She said mumbling.

She heard a quiet pfft from Sam, but was close enough to Steve to see him quiet anything else. "Apologize to Officer Graham, too, Sienna."

"Sorry Graham. I promise to stay away from here from now on."

"Hey don't worry about that, kid. You can come back any time you want, but on a friendlier visit, okay? Just come say hi. Leave on your own." She looked up at him and he smiled at her.

She gave him a crooked smile and shook his hand. Steve put his on her shoulder.

"I think it's time we leave. The others are probably pretty worried, and I just want to get you home."

They started walking out, Sam in front, Sienna beside Steve, who was basically guiding her with his hand. They were just getting to the front door when Debbie walked up.

'Perfect.' Sienna thought, 'just what I needed.'

"Oh good, honey, you're getting out." Debbie said, coming up and hugging her. "I was worried with that mean old witch Sally pressing charges."

"Yeah, I'm okay. My foster father and foster… uncle?" Sienna realized she had no idea who Sam was in this relationship, "came to get me."

"Hi, I'm Steve Rogers. Sienna's foster father, and this is Sam Wilson." Both Steve and Sam shook her hand. "And you are?"  
'Please don't say it.' Sienna prayed, but knew that it was no use. Debbie seemed nice, but not one to leave out critical information.

"I'm Debbie, the foster parent of the children she interviewed today. My husband just got home, so I was able to come over to check on Sienna." Maybe Sienna was wrong.

"Well, thank you, but we really should be getting home, now."

"Actually, I was hoping to have a word with you." Oh, there it goes. "When I came out of my house this morning, Sienna here was in my backyard, without permission. I didn't lay trespassing charges on her, since I quickly found out the situation, but I do not believe that wrongdoings should go without punishment. I was thinking of talking with you about some mandatory volunteer hours, cleaning up the parks, public places, with my supervision, of course, so you wouldn't have to take your time to do it."

Steve's hand had gotten considerably tighter on her shoulder as she spoke, and Sienna winced. The only good part about the day was Sally getting her just desserts.

"Of course." Steve said, and pushed Sienna towards Sam. "I'll give you my number, and we can set up a schedule." Turning to Sienna, he said, "go wait in the car with Sam while I talk with Debbie, okay?"

It wasn't a question. "Okay. Thanks for coming to check on me, Debbie. I'll see you soon, I guess."  
"See you sweetie." She said, and then dove into scheduling with Steve.

"Come on, Sienna." Sam said, and that's when Sienna knew he was mad. Not calling her by the nickname she gave her meant, she was sure, bad things. Despite the fact that she hadn't liked it at first, she would have given anything for it now.

She got in the backseat while he got in the passenger's side.  
"Now, do you want to tell me _why_ _in the hell_ you would go and do that explicitly after I told you we'd handle it? Or why you thought breaking the law was the way to go?" He turned to her. She looked down. "Nuh-uh, little girl. You're going to look at me while I'm talking to you.

She looked up at him, and regretting not waiting like he'd said. His eyes were full of disappointment and anger, and she wasn't sure what was worse.

"I don't know, okay? I guess I just didn't want her out there for one more second ruining other children's lives. I kind of was acting on a really strange impulse that my brain doesn't want to give me reasons for anymore."

"Yeah, well if that's the answer you give Steve, you can almost guarantee that that won't fly. So your brain better find a better reason between now and then."

Was he helping her? She didn't know, but she'd like to believe that was advice coming from a place of love, rather than hatred.

"Are you mad at me, too? Is everyone?" Sienna asked, worriedly.

"I can't speak for everyone, but yeah, I am. I expected more from you, Sienna. I really did. You want to live on your own, but your actions today were so childish, I don't know how you think you could pull it off." He said, bluntly. She started crying.

"Are- are you going to punish me, too?" She asked, knowing Steve punishing her wouldn't be an if but a when.

He sighed. "I don't know yet, Tink." That one nickname raised her spirits. He had calmed down a bit, and if he could, so could the others. "We'll figure it out."

All she could do was nod her head.

How could this brilliant plan of hers backfire so widly?


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Steve got into the car a few minutes later, and she blurted out again, "I'm really sorry."

He looked at her in the rear-view mirror briefly before sighing. "I know you are, Sienna, but sorry doesn't make up for everything. You were arrested for breaking and entering. And you trespassed. That's no small thing."

She looked down so she wouldn't have to look at him through the mirror anymore. "I know, but I really am sorry. It wasn't supposed to work out this way."

"I'm sure it wasn't. We'll talk about this when we get home." The anger was creeping back into his voice.

She decided to let it be for now. She didn't want to anger him further, so she just sat back, and looked out the window. The entire ride back to the Avengers building was spent with her focusing with all her willpower to look everywhere but up at the two men in the front seat. She could feel their gaze upon her, and she couldn't stand it. She didn't feel guilty about putting Sally away, and while she knew it was the wrong way to go about doing it, she didn't feel guilty about that, either. She did, however, feel guilty about making them come down to get her, and about scaring Debbie and her foster children.

She tried to make her features remorseful, hoping that they would believe her when she took Officer Graham's advice and said that the reason she did it was because she was under extreme duress. Every little bit at this point would no doubt help her, and her soon to be poor, poor, butt.

All too soon for her, they pulled into the garage, and turned off the engine.

She hesitated a moment before following them out of the car, but Steve opened her door for her and she strengthened her resolve.

She shifted out of the car, keeping her butt out of the line of fire as much as she could, moving over to let him close the door behind her.

"It's lunchtime now. We're going to go up and eat, and then when you're done, I want you in your room, in any corner of your choosing, thinking about what you did."  
"I'm not really hungry…" Sienna said, feeling the butterflies in her stomach.

"Tough. You will eat something. Just because you aren't on vitamins anymore doesn't mean you can't start skipping meals again."

"But…" She really doubted she would be able to get anything down.

"Sienna!" He yelled, and she flinched. He lowered his voice again. "I cannot deal with more disobedience from you today. You will do as I say right now, or you'll be getting a preview of this afternoon."

That was enough motivation to briefly forget about the butterflies, and to just do as he said. She ran to catch up with Sam, wanting to put some distance between her and Steve, just in case he decided she deserved a few swats on the way.

When they got to the kitchen, Pepper ran up to her, pulling her into a hug. "Oh, I am so glad you're okay. You had me worried sick!" She gave her a light smack. "Don't ever do that again."

Sienna kept a hold of her for a few more seconds before pulling back. "I'm sorry for worrying you."

Pepper cupped her cheek, while Tony cleared his throat. She looked around for a minute before realizing what he wanted.

"I'm sorry for worrying all of you?"

"Of course we were all worried." Tony said, coming up and giving her an awkward hug. "You can't just run away like that."

"What happened?" Wanda asked intriguingly, coming up to her.

Steve stepped in. "She can give you all a brief rundown at lunch."

They all crowded around the table, eating while she tried to give them just a brief overview of everything that happened. She couldn't help getting excited when retelling the story of Sally's arrest, but with one look at the piercing stares from Steve, Sam and Tony, calmed down a bit.

She managed to eat her entire sandwich, which surprised her, and then she was sent to her room.

She picked a corner like Steve told her to and stood there, not really thinking about anything but how the rest of the afternoon was going to go for her. Her heart began beating faster than usual, and she desperately hoped Steve would come in before long, so they could just get it over with.

What felt like an hour later, she heard a knock on the door before it opened. She turned around and was surprised to see Sam instead of Steve.

"Come sit beside me, Tink." He said, sitting on her bed. She walked over and sat right beside him, close enough that their shoulders touched. "You know what you did today?" He asked, looking up at her.

"Yeah…" She said, wondering if it was a question that required more than that as an answer.

"And you heard me before when I told you we had it all under control, and we would take care of it?"

"Yeah…" she thought she knew where this was going.  
"Then why? And you better have a better answer than I don't know."

"Because… because I didn't think you were acting fast enough, and I wanted to make sure it was done and over with! I just didn't want her to ever affect any other children ever again. And also the sooner it was done, the less time she'd have to take me away."

"We told you we weren't going to let that happen, though, Sienna. You need to start believing us."

"I can't guarantee anything."

"Well you're going to have to, because every time this happens, we will end up here, and neither of us want that." Sam said, and then his face hardened. "So that leaves us with the matter at hand. Grounding you to your room obviously didn't work, so I've decided to go a different route. For the next two weeks, you are restricted from using the library and your bedtime will be at 10. Every complaint will get you an extra day so I better not hear any. Also, I want a three-page report on what you did wrong and why you will _never_ do what you did again. Got it?"

She just sighed and looked down, nodding. That was probably pretty fair, and she was getting off quite lightly from what she could tell.

"Is that it?" She said, after a long pause.

Sam had wanted to laugh. "Is that a serious question?"

"It was an optimistic one."

"Your optimism is astounding, but no. Come here."

She wasn't quite sure how she would go to him, exactly. They were touching shoulders already. But he stood up, so she did too, and before she knew it, she was pinned under one of his arms against his side.

"Woah, ow!" She exclaimed, more surprised than anything. His swats had power behind them, but they weren't as bad as she was expecting for the severity of the crime.

After about 30 swats, he stood her back up. She had tears in her eyes, but none had fallen. She looked up at him as he pulled her in for a hug.

"Please don't make me do that again. Cap says next time you do something that's 'against me too' I will have to take it more into my hands than I am. He doesn't want to always be the bad guy." He said.

"What? He's not the bad guy…" Sienna said, pulling back and looking confused. "And does this mean that he's coming in too?"

"Of course he is, Sienna. But just him. Because he's the primary caregiver and because he's the most righteous out of all of us, and holds crime to a higher standard than even Rodhey or I do. And we're veterans. You messed up, big, Tink. There is a whole list of things you did wrong, and a couple swats and restrictions for a couple weeks doesn't cover that."

She looked down. "It didn't help that I freaked out in the jail either, did it?"

"Freaking out would have been one thing, Tink. It would have been understandable." He said seriously. "You admitted to murder. What you did was a whole other ballpark."

"You would have too if you had seen the look on Steve's face. He looked probably similar to the look he gives any bad guy before he kills them." She was being completely serious, but he laughed, which frustrated Sienna. "I'm not joking, Sam! I have never seen anyone that mad before in my life."

"You have never committed a serious crime before, though." He pointed out. "And I'm sure he gives bad guys worse stares. He probably puts murder and world domination above breaking and entering on his 'bad things people can do' list that I'm sure he has somewhere in his head."

"Yeah well when I see that face, I'll believe you. Until then, all I have to go off of is what the two of you were giving off at the police station, and that was not a good look."

"What did you expect, Sienna? You were in jail, for a real reason, not just for containment after you ran away, which we would still think is bad."

"I am learning I should expect more intense reactions from you guys, not just the typical sigh or half-hearted gesture from previous places."

"Good. Because we aren't giving up on you kid, and we are going to be different than other foster families."

That was promising, but also made her feel guilty. She still wanted to run, for real this time not just to get someone arrested, but what he was saying stuck with her, too.

"Anyways, you should sit down at your table, and start writing out what you did wrong. Cap'll be in here in a bit, and I think it's best if you have thought everything through by then."

"But…" she whined, looking over at her table, and the hard, hard chair that sat underneath it. "That's going to… hurt."

He looked at her seriously. "That's the point. It will really drive the point home if you have to sit on it, thinking about what you did."

He took her by the shoulders and guided her to her chair. She sat down slowly, but was pleasantly surprised to find out that it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Sure, it was uncomfortable, but not the worst she had ever experienced.

"Here's a pen and paper. Cap'll be in in a few."

She sat there looking at the blank piece of paper, not really knowing what it was she was supposed to write. She decided to start with the header of "Why I'm Being Punished" and go from there.

By the time Steve came in 10 minutes later, she had a small list.

Why I'm Being Punished

By Sienna Montgomery

· Sneaking out even though I planned to come back before long

· Breaking and entering

· Trespassing

· Made Steve and Sam come and get me from jail

She couldn't think of any other reasons why she was in trouble, so once she came up with the list, she just sat there, staring at the door. She jumped up off the chair as soon as he came in, but stayed where she was.

"Is that the list Sam asked you to make?" She nodded. "Alright, bring it here, with the pen. Let's see if you missed anything."

He walked over to her bed and sat down, reaching out for her list.

She stood in front of him awkwardly as he read it.  
"Is this all you came up with?" He asked.

"It's all I could think of." She said, looking down.

"Alright, well sit beside me while we add to it a bit."

She sat beside him and looked at her list.

"Okay, well let's start with the first one. You said here you planned to come back. That's all well and good, but that doesn't discount the fact that you snuck out in the first place. That was your first indiscretion. Then, how did you think you were going to get back? Were you going to walk, hitchhike, bus, taxi, what? Do you even know how to get here from the city?"

He was looking at her, but she was looking at her hands. "I… uh… no. I had intended to come back, but I had no idea how I would do that. I ran out of the money I took from my apartment, so I would have had to hitchhike or walk back, and no I don't know how to get here. I was hoping to retrace my steps."

"Okay, so there's two things. Sneaking out, no plan on how to get back. Next, breaking and entering. I think that covers it all there, but I want to hear you explain exactly _why_ you thought it would be a good idea."

"I needed information. Seemed the easiest way to get it. I would have likely just confronted her had she been home, or followed her when she left."

"Sienna, under very few circumstances is breaking and entering ever justifiable. Most of those instances are in our field of work, and you aren't in that. This was especially unreasonable, as we had devised a real, legal plan that would have not ended in anything but her arrest."

"What was it then?" Sienna jumped up to turn on him. "Because you weren't sharing it with me, and you weren't acting on it! I could have been taken away at any point and you wouldn't have been able to do anything about it."

"You need to calm down, little girl, because I am being as patient as I can with you right now, but I will not tolerate more bad behaviour from you today." She let a big breath out, but stayed where she was, expecting an answer. He continued when he realized she wasn't going to sit back down again. "We were going over every angle of footage we had from when she dropped you off, and adjusting the audio to see if we could hear anything she was saying to you. If that didn't prove to be fruitful, we were going to invite her back over and leave her alone with you, with us monitoring close by, of course, and get anything we could there. We were just waiting, because we had almost gotten the audio, but hadn't fully yet."

"Oh." Sienna said, and looked down.

"Yes. Now can you please sit down here with me while we finish?" He asked politely, indicating the spot beside him.

She moved and looked at her list again with him.

"What exactly do you consider trespassing, on this list?"

"Jumping the fence into Ms. Debbie's yard, to talk to her kids."  
"And do you know why that was wrong?"

"Because she hadn't given me permission to do so, and I could have been anybody."

"And why is that so bad?"  
"Because it could have put those children in danger?"

"Exactly. Not only did you not have permission to be on that property in the first place, but you also put those kids in harm's way in doing so. At the very least, they now know that strangers can be good people, and may be more inclined to talk to them. Now, they're at more of a risk for being kidnapped, hurt, or worse."  
Sienna started to cry, then. "I didn't mean…"  
"I know you didn't mean to, Sienna, but you have to think everything through before you just jump into action, and that's why we were going to do it here."

She just nodded and looked at her lap.

"Last thing on your list was that you made Sam and I get you from jail. And yes, you are in big trouble for that. You were actually booked, in a jail cell, for a stupid reason that I will not stand for. If you _ever_ go to jail again, you can be sure that not only will you be grounded for a month at least, but you will get my belt. Do you understand me?"

"Yes."

"Yes what?" He asked, pressing her for the first time since she'd move in for more.

"Yes I understand." She said, not fully understanding why she was made to say more.

"Sir."

"Sorry?"

"Yes I understand, sir." He said.

"Yes I understand, sir." She said back, looking him in the eyes to show him she truly did. And that she truly didn't want his belt. She assumed that meant he would use it on her bottom.

"Also, your behaviour in the jail was appalling. He could have booked you for murder! You could have been tried as an adult, and Heaven forbid they found you guilty! Then you're in jail far longer than you're in foster care, and who knows what would happen to you in there. I don't care if I have to pick you up from jail and you are worried about that, you _never_ say something like that. That is not a joke, and in the end, it didn't even save you. It got you into more trouble."

"But I panicked! You just looked so mad!"

He sighed, and looked down at his lap before looking back at her. "I know, and I'm sorry I scared you, but that's no excuse. You try and explain, you try and kiss up, anything else other than admit to a murder you didn't commit."

"It's not my fault! I was under extreme duress and couldn't think straight."  
He let out a slight laugh at that. "How'd you think of that?"

"Officer Graham told me to say it."

"Yeah well good try, but that's not a sufficient excuse in this case."

She sighed. "Well it was worth a try."

"This isn't a joking matter, Sienna. You could have gone away for a long time."

She sighed and looked at her lap. She knew it.

"Well Officer Graham knows me, he would have helped."

"I don't care, Sienna!" He yelled, and she flinched away from him. "Not only would that have landed you in prison, probably tried as an adult, but you would have created a false hope for a family of whatever victim you were claiming to have killed, thinking their family member has been avenged, for nothing. You can't just play with people's emotions like that."

"I didn't think about that, either." She started tearing. She didn't want to hurt anyone.

"It seems to me as if you didn't think about this much at all. Because yeah, all the points you made were valid, but they weren't nearly all of them, and you forgot a main point, that Tony already said."

"What's that?" She asked, looking at him, curiosity seeping through her fear of the anger he was radiating.

His face softened a little as he spoke the next words. "You worried all of us, Sienna. We were on red alert from the moment we came to your room and you were missing. We sent out search parties for you. What if someone had grabbed you on the streets? You could have been easily kidnapped, and no law enforcements would believe it, since you used to run away so often. Even all of our resources can't help against someone who's just out to cause pain."

She blushed before sounding like a broken record again. "I- I didn't think of that, either. It's never been a problem for me before."

"Yeah, well you're going to learn to think things through or else we're going to be here more often than either of us would like." With that, he pulled her over his lap.

She gasped at the sudden change in position, suddenly facing the ground, and put her arms forward to catch herself. She couldn't reach the ground, so she grabbed Steve's leg for balance.

The first swat fell to the middle of her bottom, with the second following in nearly the same place. He then moved his hand and aimed at a different part, spanking her there a couple times before moving again. He was spanking in a random but methodical way, and before long, she was crying. Not just from the pain, but from the guilt over everything he had brought up that she hadn't thought of.

He stopped around the time she sniffled for the first time, so she thought maybe he had finished for good like Sam had. Unfortunately for her, he only stopped to pull her pants down, and then resumed spanking her over her underwear.

This time, though, he spoke as he did it. "Are you ever going to sneak out and run away from here again?"

She knew she probably would, and was in fact planning on it, but knew lying would be better for her in the moment. "No! I won't, I promise!"

"Good, because if you ever do again, we will be right back here the moment I find you. And believe me, I will find you." He said, still covering her panty-clad bottom in smacks. He had raised the intensity of his smacks, as well. Or so she thought. It may have just been the lack of protection from her pants.

He continued for a little while longer before speaking again. "Are you ever going to break and enter into someone's home, or at all, ever again?"

"No!" She yelled through her tears. Her bottom felt like it was on fire, and she knew that it was nowhere near over yet.

"We had a plan, Sienna. Sam told me he told you that. You need to learn to trust us."

"I will! Please Steve, I will! Please stop, I'm sorry!"

It broke his heart, but Steve hadn't finished yet. "I know you're sorry, but that doesn't excuse what you did. You are going to remember this lesson, Sienna Montgomery, because I do not want to end up back in this position as often as we have." With that, he pulled down her underwear, exposing her now very red bottom to him.

She couldn't help herself from throwing back the hand holding his leg to block him. "Please Steve, it hurts!"

He gently moved her hand away and held it at the small of her back. He rubbed his thumb along her hand to calm her down a bit.

"Sienna, I know it hurts. It's supposed to. You're supposed to remember this when you think about doing anything like this again, to deter you from doing it."

She made a choked off sound and resigned herself to the punishment, going partially limp over his lap.

He continued again, but decided he didn't need a response from her anymore, knowing she wouldn't be able to give him one. "You are never to trespass purposefully again, especially when it puts children in danger. You need to think things through before you act. I don't ever want to see you in jail again, but if you ever _happen_ to wind up there, you are _not_ to admit to murder! Do you understand me? That is absolutely unacceptable."

"Yes! I understand, sir!" Sienna wailed, composure all the way gone. "It was stupid; I wasn't thinking straight! I promise to never to that again! Please!"

It broke Steve's heart to continue, but he knew he needed to, for her own good. "You're damn right it was stupid. I've already told you all of this, but I'll say it again. You could be booked, be jailed for a long time. You could give families false hope. None of that is acceptable."

She just cried over his lap, letting him continue. He didn't speak for a few minutes, just methodically raised his hand and let it fall, driving the point home.

Finally, he was almost finished. He raised his leg a bit to get a better angle at her sit spots but before he let his hand fall again, spoke. "We're nearly finished here. Are you ever going to worry us like that again?"

"I don't know! I hope not!" She said through shaky breaths.

He chuckled a bit under his breath. "I hope not too." With that, he finished up. Just 30 to her sit spots, but that was enough.

She didn't even notice when he had finished. She just laid there over his lap, crying. He rubbed her back for a few minutes before pulling up her underwear, and pulling her up. He then hugged her close to him, trying to soothe her as best he could as she cried.

"Please don't ever make me do that again." He said into her ear, and he felt her nod.

She was feeling guilty, not for putting Sally away, but for everything else. She knew she had taken the wrong approach to everything, and hadn't thought about any of the consequences. Especially putting those kids in danger. She thought of Sarah being kidnapped, and started crying even harder.

"Shh." Steve kept saying, rocking her back and forth, waiting for her to calm down. He knew he hadn't gone too far, but all her crying made him think that maybe he had. So he just sat there, rocking her until her tears had been cried out.

She clutched onto him for about twenty minutes, allowing herself to be comforted, but never falling asleep. She was too wired and full of emotions for that.

Finally getting herself under control, she pulled away from him and stood up on her own.

"Are you alright?" He asked, tentatively standing up after her.

"Not really, I still feel so guilty." She admitted, rubbing her eyes.

"You've been punished, Sienna. You can let it go. It's alright." Steve assured her, but she still seemed weary. "Maybe you will by the end of your grounding, and your essay."

She had forgotten about that. "Oh… yeah," she said, thinking about how impossible it would be to write a paper while sitting on her burning butt. "I don't have to stay in here the entire time, do I?"

"Quite the opposite," Steve said. "You're going to be with at least one adult at all times for the entire length of your grounding. We're going to move your mattress into my room, and you will be sleeping in there."

She was taken aback by this. "But what'll I do in the mornings before you wake up?" She couldn't bear to just lay there in the dark and think.

"We've got that covered. Now come on, put some pants on, we're all going to watch a movie in the living room."


End file.
